title: Health benefits of methylxanthines in neurodegenerative diseases.
abstract: Methylxanthines (MTXs) are consumed by almost everybody in almost every area of the world. Caffeine, theophylline and theobromine are the most well-known members of this family of compounds; they are present, inter alia, in coffee, tea, cacao, yerba mate and cola drinks. MTXs are readily absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract and are able to penetrate into the central nervous system, where they exert significant psychostimulant actions, which are more evident in acute intake. Coffee has been paradigmatic, as its use was forbidden in many diseases, however, this negative view has radically changed; evidence shows that MTXs display health benefits in diseases involving cell death in the nervous system. This paper reviews data that appraise the preventive and even therapeutic potential of MTXs in a variety of neurodegenerative diseases. Future perspectives include the use of MTXs to advance the understanding the pathophysiology of, inter alia, Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD), and the use of the methylxanthine chemical moiety as a basis for the development of new and more efficacious drugs.
authors.affiliation: Official College of Pharmacists of Gipuzkoa, San Sebastian, Spain.
authors.forename: Ainhoa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Oñatibia-Astibia
authors.affiliation: Molecular Neurobiology laboratory, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biomedicine, Faculty of Biology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.|CIBERNED, Centro de Investigación en Red, Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Franco
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Neurociencias del Principado de Asturias (INEUROPA), Departamento de Morfología y Biología Celular, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Oviedo, Asturias, Spain.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Martínez-Pinilla
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002099:Cacao / Q000737:chemistry; D002110:Caffeine / Q000494:pharmacology; D003069:Coffee / Q000737:chemistry; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D030019:Ilex paraguariensis / Q000737:chemistry; D015201:Meta-Analysis as Topic; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy*; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000494:pharmacology; D013805:Theobromine / Q000494:pharmacology; D013806:Theophylline / Q000494:pharmacology; D014970:Xanthines / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D003069:Coffee; D010936:Plant Extracts; D014970:Xanthines; C008514:methylxanthine; D002110:Caffeine; D013806:Theophylline; D013805:Theobromine
keywords: Adenosine; Adenosine receptors; Alzheimer's disease; Antagonists; Coffee; G-protein-coupled receptors; Parkinson's disease; Tea; Yerba mate