Abstract
Oxidative stress is known to impair architecture and function of cells, which may lead to various chronic diseases, and therefore therapeutic and nutritional interventions to reduce oxidative damages represent a viable strategy in the amelioration of oxidative stress-related disorders, including neurodegenerative diseases. Over the past decade, a variety of natural polysaccharides from functional and medicinal foods have attracted great interest due to their antioxidant functions such as scavenging free radicals and reducing oxidative damages. Interestingly, these antioxidant polysaccharides are also found to attenuate neuronal damages and alleviate cognitive and motor decline in a range of neurodegenerative models. It has recently been established that the neuroprotective mechanisms of polysaccharides are related to oxidative stress-related pathways, including mitochondrial function, antioxidant defense system and pathogenic protein aggregation. Here, we first summarize the current status of antioxidant function of food-derived polysaccharides and then attempt to appraise their anti-neurodegeneration activities.
Highlights
Oxygen is essential for normal life of aerobic organisms
Food-derived polysaccharides have been shown to scavenge free radicals in vitro and reduce oxidative damages in cellular and animal models, and their in vivo antioxidant capacities are related with regulation of peroxidation products, antioxidant defense system and stress-related signaling
As oxidative stress is closely associated with neurodegeneration, some antioxidant polysaccharides are tested for their anti-neurodegenerative diseases (NDD) activity and found to attenuate neuronal damages and dysfunction in a number of neurodegenerative models
Summary
Oxygen is essential for normal life of aerobic organisms. Due to its high redox potential, oxygen is inevitably involved in the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as superoxide anion, hydroxyl radical and hydrogen peroxide. Cells have a set of antioxidant defense system, including enzymatic antioxidants such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and non-enzymatic antioxidants such as glutathione and vitamins, to combat excessive ROS [5,6]. Clinical evidence has shown that NDD patients display an oxidative stress-related manifestation, including increases of ROS level, lipid peroxidation and protein oxidation [13,14]. Recent studies have revealed that ROS-induced peroxidation products, such as the lipid peroxidation product malondialdehyde (MDA) and the protein oxidation product carbonyl groups, can damage other cellular components and exacerbate neuronal dysfunction, further demonstrating the detrimental consequence of oxidative stress in neurodegeneration [4,15,16]. Intake of foods rich in antioxidant ingredients has shown potentials to prevent oxidative stress-related conditions, including NDD [17,18,19]. We first review the antioxidant effects of food-derived polysaccharides and focus on their protective function against neurodegeneration
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