Abstract
While the elderly segment of the population continues growing in importance, neurodegenerative diseases increase exponentially. Lifestyle factors such as nutrition, exercise, and education, among others, influence ageing progression, throughout life. Notably, the Central Nervous System (CNS) can benefit from nutritional strategies and dietary interventions that prevent signs of senescence, such as cognitive decline or neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s Disease. The dietary polyphenol Resveratrol (RV) possesses antioxidant and cytoprotective effects, producing neuroprotection in several organisms. The oxidative stress (OS) occurs because of Reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation that has been proposed to explain the cause of the ageing. One of the most harmful effects of ROS in the cell is DNA damage. Nevertheless, there is also evidence demonstrating that OS can produce other molecular changes such as mitochondrial dysfunction, inflammation, apoptosis, and epigenetic modifications, among others. Interestingly, the dietary polyphenol RV is a potent antioxidant and possesses pleiotropic actions, exerting its activity through various molecular pathways. In addition, recent evidence has shown that RV mediates epigenetic changes involved in ageing and the function of the CNS that persists across generations. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that RV interacts with gut microbiota, showing modifications in bacterial composition associated with beneficial effects. In this review, we give a comprehensive overview of the main mechanisms of action of RV in different experimental models, including clinical trials and discuss how the interconnection of these molecular events could explain the neuroprotective effects induced by RV.
Highlights
According to 2015 United Nations report on the ageing of the world population, it is expected that the number of people aged 60 and over worldwide will double in the 35 years, reaching almost 2.1 billion people
We focus on the pleiotropic effects of RV such as oxidative stress (OS), inflammation, apoptosis, mitochondrial function, proteostasis,gut microbiota diversity and lifespan
Another study in which rat mothers were fed with RV supplementation in perinatal asphyxia (PA), demonstrated neuroprotective effects in offspring through reduction of inflammatory markers such as IL-1β, Tumor Necrosis Factor-α (TNF-α) and S-100 Calcium Binding Protein B (S-100B) protein that were regulated by miRNAs miR-124, miR-132, miR-134, miR-146 and miR-15a (Isac et al, 2017)
Summary
According to 2015 United Nations report on the ageing of the world population, it is expected that the number of people aged 60 and over worldwide will double in the 35 years, reaching almost 2.1 billion people. Several pathological mechanisms, such as the increase in oxidative stress (OS), mitochondrial dysfunction, inflammatory response, and reduction in gut microbiota composition have been linked to accelerate ageing (Petersen and Smith, 2016). Increasing evidence demonstrates that changes in the epigenome during ageing leads to transcriptional alterations and genomic instability, mainly, contributing to the appearance of age-related diseases, such as cancer and neurodegenerative diseases (Sen et al, 2016; Guillaumet-Adkins et al, 2017). Published works in several systems and organisms (Sen et al, 2016; Guillaumet-Adkins et al, 2017) It is opening new avenues of research to explain the beneficial effects of polyphenols in ageing and age-related diseases. Studies have suggested the antioxidant therapeutics could potentially mimic the physiological actions of the natural antioxidant defence system, result ing in slower ageing and prolongation of lifespan
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