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Review
. 2022 Oct 11;27(20):6804.
doi: 10.3390/molecules27206804.

Alzheimer's Disease as a Major Public Health Concern: Role of Dietary Saponins in Mitigating Neurodegenerative Disorders and Their Underlying Mechanisms

Asaad A Abduljawad  1 , Mohammed Ahmed Elawad  1   2 , Modawy Elnour Modawy Elkhalifa  1   2 , Alshebli Ahmed  1   2 , Alashary Adam Eisa Hamdoon  1   2 , Liga Hasan Mohammed Salim  1   2 , Muhammad Ashraf  3 , Muhammad Ayaz  3 , Syed Shams Ul Hassan  4   5 , Simona Bungau  6
Affiliations
Review

Alzheimer's Disease as a Major Public Health Concern: Role of Dietary Saponins in Mitigating Neurodegenerative Disorders and Their Underlying Mechanisms

Asaad A Abduljawad et al. Molecules. .

Abstract

Saponins are triterpenoid or steroidal glycosides and are an important group of naturally occurring compounds of plant origin. They exhibit diverse pharmacological potentials including radical scavenging, as well as neuroprotective, anti-diabetic and anti-inflammatory activities, owing to their diverse chemical scaffolds. Saponins consist of an aglycone part (non-sugar) and a glycone part (sugar) and have at least one glycosidic (C-O sugar bond) linkage present between the glycone and aglycone mostly at C-3. On the basis of the aglycone part, saponins are classified into triterpenoid glycosides, steroid glycosides and alkaloid glycosides. Saponins exhibit neuroprotective activities against various disorders of the central nervous system (CNS) including stroke, Alzheimer's disease (AD), Huntington's disease (HD) and Parkinson's disease (PD). They mediate their therapeutic effects by modulation of various pathological targets. This study highlights various neuroprotective mechanisms of saponins including free radical scavenging, modulation of neuroprotective signaling pathways, activation of neurotrophic factors, modulation of neurotransmitters, inhibition of BACE1 enzyme and tau hyper-phosphorylation. The study concludes that saponins have considerable efficacy against various pathological targets of neurological disorders, especially AD, and might be an important source of leads against neurodegenerative disorders.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; neurodegenerative disorders; neurotrophins; saponins; signaling pathways.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Two major hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease: Aβ and NFTs.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Structures of some ginseng saponins having neuroprotective effects. (Chemical structures were generated using ChemBioDraw ultra version 14).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Chemical structure of neuroprotective saponins from ginseng. (Chemical structures were generated using ChemBioDraw ultra version 14).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Neuroprotective saponins from medicinal plants. (Chemical structures were generated using ChemBioDraw ultra version 14).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Neuroprotective saponins from plants. (Chemical structures were generated using ChemBioDraw ultra version 14).
Figure 6
Figure 6
Chemical structure of bioactive saponins discussed in the study (Chemical structures were generated using ChemBioDraw ultra version 14).
Figure 7
Figure 7
Involvement of neurotrophic modulation, anti-inflammation and anti-oxidant mechanisms in the neuroprotective potentials of saponins.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Mechanisms underlying the anti-tau process and modulation of neuroprotective signaling pathways.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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