Neuroprotective Natural Products for Alzheimer's Disease

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the number one neurovegetative disease, but its treatment options are relatively few and ineffective. In efforts to discover new strategies for AD therapy, natural products have aroused interest in the research community and in the pharmaceutical industry for their neuroprotective activity, targeting different pathological mechanisms associated with AD. A wide variety of natural products from different origins have been evaluated preclinically and clinically for their neuroprotective mechanisms in preventing and attenuating the multifactorial pathologies of AD. This review mainly focuses on the possible neuroprotective mechanisms from natural products that may be beneficial in AD treatment and the natural product mixtures or extracts from different sources that have demonstrated neuroprotective activity in preclinical and/or clinical studies. It is believed that natural product mixtures or extracts containing multiple bioactive compounds that can work additively or synergistically to exhibit multiple neuroprotective mechanisms might be an effective approach in AD drug discovery.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease (AD); amyloid β peptide (Aβ); anti-neuroinflammatory; antioxidant; natural products; neurodegenerative; neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs); neuroprotective.

Figure 1

Neuroprotective effects from natural products for AD.