Functional Foods: An Approach to Modulate Molecular Mechanisms of Alzheimer's Disease.

Giuseppina Amadoro,Valentina Latina,Anna Atlante,Antonella Bobba

doi:10.3390/cells9112347

Abstract

A new epoch is emerging with intense research on nutraceuticals, i.e., “food or food product that provides medical or health benefits including the prevention and treatment of diseases”, such as Alzheimer’s disease. Nutraceuticals act at different biochemical and metabolic levels and much evidence shows their neuroprotective effects; in particular, they are able to provide protection against mitochondrial damage, oxidative stress, toxicity of β-amyloid and Tau and cell death. They have been shown to influence the composition of the intestinal microbiota significantly contributing to the discovery that differential microorganisms composition is associated with the formation and aggregation of cerebral toxic proteins. Further, the routes of interaction between epigenetic mechanisms and the microbiota–gut–brain axis have been elucidated, thus establishing a modulatory role of diet-induced epigenetic changes of gut microbiota in shaping the brain. This review examines recent scientific literature addressing the beneficial effects of some natural products for which mechanistic evidence to prevent or slowdown AD are available. Even if the road is still long, the results are already exceptional.

Highlights

Fruits and vegetables have risen to the honors of healthy foods since they have been considered valuable antagonists of the aging process, able to help to fight age-associated diseases
This aspect appears to be of relative importance, as reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, even if only secondary, is extremely harmful to brain tissue because beside contribute to neuronal damage, one of the most serious free radical attack on the body is memory loss, any effort aimed at removing ROS or at preventing ROS formation may be of primary use in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients
Preliminary clinical investigations conducted on several AD patients indicate that diet integration with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory nutrients is able to promote the growth of Bifidobatcterium, which is necessary for the microbiota eubiosis and capable of preventing the production of bacterial toxins involved in brain amyloidogenesis, effectively improving the cognitive ability of patients [128]

Summary

Introduction

Fruits and vegetables have risen to the honors of healthy foods since they have been considered valuable antagonists of the aging process, able to help to fight age-associated diseases. A new study published last February in the journal Nutrition [24] found that MD, administered to elderly subjects, alters the microbiome and increases the abundance of specific taxa that seem to correlate with improved cognitive function and decreased inflammatory markers It was Stephen Defelice, chairman of the American organization known as Foundation for Innovation in Medicine, who first coined the term ‘nutraceutical’, a word derived by the crasis between “nutrition” and “pharmaceutical”, to indicate those components of food which have beneficial effects on our health but can be employed in therapeutic paths to lower the risk of many diseases in humans [25,26]. Following a correct diet is essential to keep fit, and to preserve our mental health, i.e., improve memory, cognitive functions, intelligence and sharpness

Nutraceuticals

Classification of Nutraceuticals

Alzheimer

Apoptosis

Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Oxidative Stress

Microbiota and Diet

Nutraceuticals for Neuroprotection and Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease

Genistein

Curcumin

Carotenoid

Lycopene

Nutraceutical Compounds against Aβ and Tau Toxicity and Aggregation