Abstract
Various bioactive substances isolated from natural products play a pivotal role in the prevention and cure of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease. Currently, there are many theories about the pathogenesis of this disease. In this review we discuss among them, the cholinergic hypotheses, the Aβ toxicity hypothesis, and the tau dysfunction hypothesis. Multiple potential targets are a focus for the development of anti-AD drugs. There is an urgent need to develop more effective therapies to treat and delay the onset of the disease and to find safe and effective drugs. In this review, the recent progress of anti-AD effects and their principal targets are updated.
Highlights
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a chronic progressive neurodegenerative disease associated with memory loss and cognitive impairment (Colligris et al, 2018)
The cholinergic hypothesis proposes that increased AChE activity in AD patients with brain lesions may lead to the loss of the acetylcholine of cholinergic synapses, affect the conduction of nerve impulses and result in cognitive and memory impairment (Leblhuber et al, 2018; Mesulam and Geula, 1991)
Natural products have been used in many regions of the world for thousands of years to treat cancer, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases (Howes et al, 2017; Jernigan et al, 2017; Tewari et al, 2019)
Summary
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a chronic progressive neurodegenerative disease associated with memory loss and cognitive impairment (Colligris et al, 2018). As described by Barage and Sonawane (Barage and Sonawane, 2015), the biochemical studies of biopsy tissue and post-mortem brain tissues from AD patients showing a reduction in relation to the choline acetyltransferase activity, ACh synthesis, choline uptake and ACh release These notable data indicated the clinical importance referred to degeneration of cholinergic neurons and related loss of cholinergic neurotransmission, considering the cerebral cortex as well as other areas that brought about a significant contribution to impairment of cognitive functions in AD. Mation and removal of Aβ from brain tissue results in a situation that leads to toxic aggregation and production of senile plaques This process promotes hyperphosphorylation of tau protein, resulting in destabilization of the cytoskeleton and degeneration of nerve cells (de Castro et al, 2019). Natural products exert anti-AD effects through multi-targeting, which provides advantages and the possibility of wide application (McKenna et al, 2001; Morasch et al, 2015; Zanforlin et al, 2017)
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