Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Malakand, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 18800, Pakistan.
Department of Biochemistry, University of Malakand, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 18800, Pakistan.
Curr Top Med Chem. 2022;22(22):1811-1820. doi: 10.2174/1568026622666220815104305.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the main healthcare challenges of the twenty-first century, not only affecting millions of people's quality of life but also increasing the burden on the medical community, families, and society. It is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by learning and cognitive dysfunction, behavioral turbulence, and memory loss and is a major cause of dementia, contributing to 50-60 % of dementia cases in patients above the age of 65. The major pathophysiological changes include accumulation of beta-amyloid plaques (Aβ), highly phosphorylated tau protein, neuroinflammation, GABA neurotransmission disruption, mitochondrial dysfunction, neuronal damage due to free radicals, and decreased concentration of acetylcholine (ACh) and butyrylcholine (BCh). The inability of commercial therapeutics, such as donepezil, rivastigmine, galantamine, and tacrine, leads to the attraction toward phytochemical-based therapeutics. Phytochemicals derived from plants exhibit neuroprotection via targeting apoptosis, neurotrophic factor deficit, mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, and abnormal accumulation of proteins. Here, we discussed some of the neuroprotective phytochemicals used for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases like AD and dementia.
阿尔茨海默病（AD）是 21 世纪主要的医疗保健挑战之一，不仅影响了数百万人的生活质量，也增加了医疗界、家庭和社会的负担。它是一种神经退行性疾病，其特征是学习和认知功能障碍、行为紊乱以及记忆丧失，是痴呆的主要病因之一，导致 65 岁以上患者中 50-60%的病例为痴呆。主要的病理生理变化包括β-淀粉样蛋白斑块（Aβ）、高度磷酸化的 tau 蛋白、神经炎症、GABA 神经递质传递中断、线粒体功能障碍、自由基引起的神经元损伤以及乙酰胆碱（ACh）和丁酰胆碱（BCh）浓度降低。由于商业疗法（如多奈哌齐、利斯的明、加兰他敏和他克林）的无效，因此人们开始关注基于植物化学物质的疗法。植物来源的植物化学物质通过靶向细胞凋亡、神经营养因子缺乏、线粒体功能障碍、氧化应激和蛋白质异常积累来发挥神经保护作用。在这里，我们讨论了一些用于治疗阿尔茨海默病和痴呆等神经退行性疾病的神经保护植物化学物质。
