Apollo Health, P.O. Box 117040, Burlingame, CA 94011, USA.
College of Medicine, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32827, USA.
Biomolecules. 2021 Apr 8;11(4):543. doi: 10.3390/biom11040543.
Background-Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a multifactorial, progressive, neurodegenerative disease that is characterized by memory loss, personality changes, and a decline in cognitive function. While the exact cause of AD is still unclear, recent studies point to lifestyle, diet, environmental, and genetic factors as contributors to disease progression. The pharmaceutical approaches developed to date do not alter disease progression. More than two hundred promising drug candidates have failed clinical trials in the past decade, suggesting that the disease and its causes may be highly complex. Medicinal plants and herbal remedies are now gaining more interest as complementary and alternative interventions and are a valuable source for developing drug candidates for AD. Indeed, several scientific studies have described the use of various medicinal plants and their principal phytochemicals for the treatment of AD. This article reviews a subset of herbs for their anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and cognitive-enhancing effects. Methods-This article systematically reviews recent studies that have investigated the role of neuroprotective herbs and their bioactive compounds for dementia associated with Alzheimer's disease and pre-Alzheimer's disease. PubMed Central, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases of articles were collected, and abstracts were reviewed for relevance to the subject matter. Conclusions-Medicinal plants have great potential as part of an overall program in the prevention and treatment of cognitive decline associated with AD. It is hoped that these medicinal plants can be used in drug discovery programs for identifying safe and efficacious small molecules for AD.
背景-阿尔茨海默病（AD）是一种多因素、进行性、神经退行性疾病，其特征是记忆力减退、性格改变和认知功能下降。虽然 AD 的确切病因仍不清楚，但最近的研究表明，生活方式、饮食、环境和遗传因素是疾病进展的原因。迄今为止开发的药物方法并不能改变疾病的进展。在过去的十年中，超过 200 种有前途的候选药物在临床试验中失败，这表明该疾病及其病因可能非常复杂。药用植物和草药作为补充和替代干预措施越来越受到关注，是开发 AD 候选药物的宝贵来源。事实上，几项科学研究已经描述了各种药用植物及其主要植物化学物质用于治疗 AD。本文综述了一组草药的抗炎、抗氧化和增强认知作用。方法-本文系统地综述了最近的研究，这些研究调查了具有神经保护作用的草药及其生物活性化合物在与阿尔茨海默病和早老性痴呆相关的痴呆中的作用。收集了 PubMed Central、Scopus 和 Google Scholar 数据库的文章，并对摘要进行了审查，以确定其与主题的相关性。结论-药用植物作为预防和治疗与 AD 相关的认知能力下降的综合计划的一部分具有巨大潜力。希望这些药用植物可以用于药物发现计划，以确定安全有效的 AD 小分子。
