Departamento de Bioingeniería, Escuela de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus Ciudad de México, Mexico City 14380, Mexico.
Laboratorio de Bioquímica Farmacológica, Departamento de Bioquímica, Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biológicas, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico City 11340, Mexico.
Cells. 2024 Sep 26;13(19):1611. doi: 10.3390/cells13191611.
The constant increase in the elderly population presents significant challenges in addressing new social, economic, and health problems concerning this population. With respect to health, aging is a primary risk factor for age-related diseases, which are driven by interconnected molecular hallmarks that influence the development of these diseases. One of the main mechanisms that has attracted more attention to aging is autophagy, a catabolic process that removes and recycles damaged or dysfunctional cell components to preserve cell viability. The autophagy process can be induced or deregulated in response to a wide range of internal or external stimuli, such as starvation, oxidative stress, hypoxia, damaged organelles, infectious pathogens, and aging. Natural compounds that promote the stimulation of autophagy regulatory pathways, such as mTOR, FoxO1/3, AMPK, and Sirt1, lead to increased levels of essential proteins such as Beclin-1 and LC3, as well as a decrease in p62. These changes indicate the activation of autophagic flux, which is known to be decreased in cardiovascular diseases, neurodegeneration, and cataracts. The regulated administration of natural compounds offers an adjuvant therapeutic alternative in age-related diseases; however, more experimental evidence is needed to support and confirm these health benefits. Hence, this review aims to highlight the potential benefits of natural compounds in regulating autophagy pathways as an alternative approach to combating age-related diseases.
人口老龄化的不断增加给解决这一人群的新的社会、经济和健康问题带来了重大挑战。就健康而言，衰老是与年龄相关疾病的主要风险因素，这些疾病是由相互关联的分子特征驱动的，这些特征影响着这些疾病的发展。吸引人们更多关注衰老的主要机制之一是自噬，这是一种分解代谢过程，可以清除和回收受损或功能失调的细胞成分，以维持细胞活力。自噬过程可以响应广泛的内部或外部刺激而被诱导或失调，如饥饿、氧化应激、缺氧、受损的细胞器、传染性病原体和衰老。促进自噬调节途径（如 mTOR、FoxO1/3、AMPK 和 Sirt1）刺激的天然化合物会导致必需蛋白（如 Beclin-1 和 LC3）水平升高，同时 p62 减少。这些变化表明自噬通量的激活，自噬通量在心血管疾病、神经退行性变和白内障中已知会减少。天然化合物的调节给药为与年龄相关的疾病提供了一种辅助治疗选择；然而，需要更多的实验证据来支持和证实这些健康益处。因此，本综述旨在强调天然化合物在调节自噬途径作为对抗与年龄相关的疾病的一种替代方法的潜在益处。
