LFQM - Laboratório de Fitoquímica e Química Medicinal, Instituto de Ciências Exatas, Universidade Federal de Alfenas (UNIFAL-MG), 37130-000, Alfenas, MG, Brazil.
CNS Neurol Disord Drug Targets. 2011 Mar;10(2):239-50. doi: 10.2174/187152711794480483.
Neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease (PD), Alzheimer's disease (AD), Huntington's disease (HD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are currently incurable pathologies with huge social and economic impacts closely related to the increasing of life expectancy in modern times. Although the clinical and neuropathological aspects of these debilitating disorders are distinct, they share a pattern of neurodegeneration in anatomically or functionally related regions. For each disease, presently available treatments only address symptoms and do not alter the course or progression of the underlying diseases. In this context, the search for new effective chemical entities, capable of acting on diverse biochemical targets, with new mechanisms of action and low toxicity are genuine challenges to research groups and the pharmaceutical industry. This medical need has led to the reemerging of modern natural products chemistry that has yielded sophisticated and complex new lead molecules for drug discovery and development. In this review we discuss some of the main contributions of the natural products chemistry that covers multiple and varied plant species. Advances in the discovery of active constituents of plants, herbs, and extracts prescribed by traditional medicine practices for the treatment of senile neurodegenerative disorders, especially for PD, in the period after the 2000s is reviewed. The most important contributions from the 1990s are also discussed. The review also focuses on the pharmacological mechanisms of action that might underlie the purported beneficial improvements in memory and cognition, neurovascular function, and in neuroprotection. It is concluded that natural product chemistry brings tremendous diversity and historical precedent to a huge area of unmet medical need.
神经退行性疾病，如帕金森病（PD）、阿尔茨海默病（AD）、亨廷顿病（HD）和肌萎缩侧索硬化症（ALS），目前都是无法治愈的疾病，具有巨大的社会和经济影响，与现代人类预期寿命的延长密切相关。尽管这些使人衰弱的疾病在临床和神经病理学方面存在差异，但它们在解剖学或功能上相关的区域都存在神经退行性变的模式。对于每种疾病，目前可用的治疗方法仅能缓解症状，而不能改变潜在疾病的进程或进展。在这种情况下，寻找新的有效化学实体，能够针对不同的生化靶点，具有新的作用机制和低毒性，是研究小组和制药行业面临的真正挑战。这种医疗需求导致了现代天然产物化学的重新兴起，它为药物发现和开发提供了复杂而新颖的先导分子。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了天然产物化学的一些主要贡献，涵盖了多种不同的植物物种。综述了 21 世纪后，传统医学实践中用于治疗老年神经退行性疾病，尤其是 PD 的植物、草药和提取物的活性成分的发现进展。还讨论了 20 世纪 90 年代的重要贡献。综述还重点介绍了可能支持改善记忆和认知、神经血管功能和神经保护的药理学作用机制。结论是，天然产物化学为巨大的未满足医疗需求领域带来了巨大的多样性和历史先例。
