Pan Tianhong, Jankovic Joseph, Le Weidong
Department of Neurology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.
Drugs Aging. 2003;20(10):711-21. doi: 10.2165/00002512-200320100-00001.
Tea is one of the most frequently consumed beverages in the world. It is rich in polyphenols, a group of compounds that exhibit numerous biochemical activities. Green tea is not fermented and contains more catechins than black tea or oolong tea. Although clinical evidence is still limited, the circumstantial data from several recent studies suggest that green tea polyphenols may promote health and reduce disease occurrence, and possibly protect against Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. Green tea polyphenols have demonstrated neuroprotectant activity in cell cultures and animal models, such as the prevention of neurotoxin-induced cell injury. The biological properties of green tea polyphenols reported in the literature include antioxidant actions, free radical scavenging, iron-chelating properties, (3)H-dopamine and (3)H-methyl-4-phenylpyridine uptake inhibition, catechol-O-methyltransferase activity reduction, protein kinase C or extracellular signal-regulated kinases signal pathway activation, and cell survival/cell cycle gene modulation. All of these biological effects may benefit patients with Parkinson's disease. Despite numerous studies in recent years, the understanding of the biological activities and health benefits of green tea polyphenols is still very limited. Further in-depth studies are needed to investigate the safety and efficacy of green tea in humans and to determine the different mechanisms of green tea in neuroprotection.
茶是世界上最常饮用的饮品之一。它富含多酚类物质，这是一类具有多种生化活性的化合物。绿茶未经发酵，比红茶或乌龙茶含有更多的儿茶素。尽管临床证据仍然有限，但最近几项研究的间接数据表明，绿茶多酚可能促进健康、减少疾病发生，并可能预防帕金森病和其他神经退行性疾病。绿茶多酚在细胞培养和动物模型中已显示出神经保护活性，如预防神经毒素诱导的细胞损伤。文献报道的绿茶多酚的生物学特性包括抗氧化作用、自由基清除、铁螯合特性、（3）H-多巴胺和（3）H-甲基-4-苯基吡啶摄取抑制、儿茶酚-O-甲基转移酶活性降低、蛋白激酶C或细胞外信号调节激酶信号通路激活以及细胞存活/细胞周期基因调节。所有这些生物学效应可能对帕金森病患者有益。尽管近年来进行了大量研究，但对绿茶多酚的生物学活性和健康益处的了解仍然非常有限。需要进一步深入研究来调查绿茶对人类的安全性和有效性，并确定绿茶在神经保护中的不同机制。
