title: Natural Polyphenols in the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease.
abstract: Neurodegenerative disease is an incurable disease which involves the degeneration or death of the nerve cells. Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease discovered in 1906 by Alois Alzheimer, a German clinical psychiatrist and neuroanatomist. The main pathological hallmarks of this disease are the formation of extracellular amyloid β (Aβ) plaques and intracellular neurofibrillary tangle (NFT). The accumulation of the amyloid protein aggregates in the brain of AD patients leads to oxidative stress and inflammation. Other postulated reasons for the development of this disease are cholinergic depletion and excessive glutamatergic neurotransmission. The current drugs approved and marketed for the treatment of AD are cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEIs) and N-methyl-Daspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists. The function of ChEIs is to avoid cholinergic depletion; whereas the function of NMDA receptor antagonist is to block excessive glutamatergic neurotransmission. Unfortunately, the current drugs prescribed for AD show only modest improvement in terms of symptomatic relief and delay the progression of the disease. This review will discuss about several polyphenolic compounds as potential natural treatment options for AD. Three compounds are highlighted in this review - Curcumin (Cur), Resveratrol (Rsv) and Epigallocatechin-3- gallate (EGCG). These compounds have huge potential for AD treatment, especially due to their low frequency of adverse events. However, the current conventional pharmaceutical drugs remain as the mainstay of treatment for AD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Syed-Badrul
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Syarifah-Noratiqah
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Isa
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Naina-Mohamed
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Mohamed S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Zulfarina
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: H M S
authors.initials: HMS
authors.lastname: Qodriyah
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D002392:Catechin / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000494:pharmacology; D003474:Curcumin / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000494:pharmacology; D018450:Disease Progression; D006801:Humans; D018696:Neuroprotective Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018384:Oxidative Stress / Q000187:drug effects; D059808:Polyphenols / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000077185:Resveratrol / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D018696:Neuroprotective Agents; D059808:Polyphenols; D002392:Catechin; C045651:epigallocatechin gallate; D003474:Curcumin; D000077185:Resveratrol
keywords: Cholinesterase inhibitors; N-methyl-D-aspartate; curcumin; epigallocatechin-3-gallate; neurodegenerative disease; polyphenolic compounds; resveratrol.