Hormesis: Path and Progression to Significance

Abstract

This paper tells the story of how hormesis became recognized as a fundamental concept in biology, affecting toxicology, microbiology, medicine, public health, agriculture, and all areas related to enhancing biological performance. This paper assesses how hormesis enhances resilience to normal aging and protects against a broad spectrum of neurodegenerative, cardiovascular, and other diseases, as well as trauma and other threats to health and well-being. This paper also explains the application of hormesis to several neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Huntington's disease, macrophage polarization and its systematic adaptive protections, and the role of hormesis in enhancing stem cell functioning and medical applications.

Keywords: adaptive response; biphasic; dose response; hormesis; hormetic; pre-conditioning; resilience.

Figure 1

Integration of hormesis and LNT (linear non-threshold) for risk assessment. (Source: Calabrese et al. [52]).

Figure 2

Number of head dips/5 min in (dl-THP)-treated male and female ICR mice in the anxiolytic drug hole board test (Source: Leung et al. [67]).

Figure 3

Effect of different doses of morphine on pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-induced seizure threshold (Source: Honar et al. [68]).

Figure 4

β-amyloid peptide (Aβ)42 has a hormetic effect on hippocampal long-term potentiation (Source: Puzzo et al. [59]).

Figure 5

Effects of riluzole on glutamate uptake in rat spinal cord synaptosomes (Source: Frizzo et al. [60]).

Figure 6

Effects of berberine on cell viability in PC12 cells (i.e., Parkinson’s disease cellular model) 24 h after treatment (Source: Zhang et al. [69]).

Figure 7

Effects of prior exposure to berberine on cell viability in PC12 cells that were challenged within a preconditioning protocol 24 h later 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) (Source: Zhang et al. [69]).

Figure 8

The effects of chemopreventive agents on ST14A cells an in vitro Huntington’s disease model (Source: Wang et al. [63]-Table S1). Protection occurs in responses <100%, whereas toxicity occurs for responses >100%.

Figure 9

3-Nitropropionic acid (3-NP) preconditioning on neurological deterioration and infarction after transient focal cerebral ischemia in gerbils (Source: Kuroiwa et al. [68]).