Ginger, a Possible Candidate for the Treatment of Dementias?

Abstract

As the human life expectancy increases, age-linked diseases have become more and more frequent. The worldwide increment of dementia cases demands medical solutions, but the current available drugs do not meet all the expectations. Recently the attention of the scientific community was attracted by natural compounds, used in ancient medicine, known for their beneficial effects and high tolerability. This review is focused on Ginger (Zingiber officinale) and explore its properties against Alzheimer's Disease and Vascular Dementia, two of the most common and devastating forms of dementia. This work resumes the beneficial effects of Ginger compounds, tested in computational in vitro and in vivo models of Alzheimer's Disease and Vascular Dementia, along with some human tests. All these evidences suggest a potential role of the compounds of ginger not only in the treatment of the disease, but also in its prevention.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; dementia; ginger; neurodegeneration; neuroinflammation; neuroprotection; vascular dementia.

Figure 1

Methodology description of articles selected for this review using Prisma flow diagram [8].

Figure 2

Chemical structure of main ginger derivates that will be mentioned in our review.

Figure 3

Chemical structure of Mol1, Mol2, and G3 used by Cuya et al. [42,43].

Figure 4

Main effects of ginger in AD studies. COX-2: Cyclooxygenase 2; CXCL10: C-X-C Motif Chemokine Ligand 10; NF-κB: Nuclear factor kappa-B; IL-1β: Interleukin 1-beta; MDA: Malondialdehyde; TNF-α: Tumor necrosis factor-α; IL-6: Interleukin 6; GFAP: Glial fibrillary acid protein; MAC-1: Macrophage-1 antigen; SOD: Superoxide dismutase; CAT: Catalase; iNOS: Inducible nitric oxide synthetase; APH1a: Gamma-secretase subunit APH-1A; CysLT1R: Cysteinyl leukotriene 1 receptor; AchE: Acetylcholinesterase; BChE: Butyrylcholinesterase; BDNF: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor; GABA-A: Gamma-Aminobutyric acid-A.

Figure 5

Main effects of ginger in VD studies. NF-κB: Nuclear factor kappa-B; MDA: Malondialdehyde; TNF-α: Tumor necrosis factor-α; IL-6: Interleukin 6; SOD: Superoxide dismutase; CAT: Catalase; AChE: Acetylcholinesterase; BChE: Butyrylcholinesterase; GPx: glutathione peroxidase; PPARγ: peroxisome proliferation activator receptor γ.