Plants and phytochemicals for Huntington′s disease

Abstract

Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive motor dysfunction, including chorea and dystonia, emotional disturbances, memory, and weight loss. The medium spiny neurons of striatum and cortex are mainly effected in HD. Various hypotheses, including molecular genetics, oxidative stress, excitotoxicity, metabolic dysfunction, and mitochondrial impairment have been proposed to explain the pathogenesis of neuronal dysfunction and cell death. Despite no treatment is available to fully stop the progression of the disease, there are treatments available to help control the chorea. The present review deals with brief pathophysiology of the disease, plants and phytochemicals that have shown beneficial effects against HD like symptoms. The literature for the current review was collected using various databases such as Science direct, Pubmed, Scopus, Sci-finder, Google Scholar, and Cochrane database with a defined search strategy.

The Role of Reactive Oxygen Species in the Pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, and Huntington’s Disease: A Mini Review

“…HD patients showed an increased level of oxidative stress markers accompanied by a decrease in antioxidant status compared to healthy subjects [178]. ROS mediated oxidative damage to mitochondria has been postulated as a reasonable mechanism for the defect in glucose metabolism in the brain tissue of symptomatic HD patients [179]. A positive correlation between plasma lipid peroxidation byproduct and the severity of disease in patients with HD has been shown [180].…”

Targeting Ubiquitin-Proteasome Pathway by Natural Products: Novel Therapeutic Strategy for Treatment of Neurodegenerative Diseases

“…In addition, polyphenolic compounds may exert neuroprotective effects involving phosphoinositide 3kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (Akt)/glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) (PI3K/Akt/GSK3β) neuronal survival pathway, through the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors and by downstream signaling in hippocampus and cognitive deficits through tyrosine receptor kinase β (Trkβ) and brainderived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in hippocampus (Srivastava et al, 2018). Generally, natural compounds have shown inhibitory or therapeutic effects on neurodegerative disorders via biological effects such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, calcium antagonization, anti-apoptosis, and neurofunctional regulation (Choudhary et al, 2013).…”

“…Beside flavonoids, various non-flavonoid antioxidant phytochemicals like α-mangostin, curcumin, lycopene, and melatonin, have been reported as effective natural compounds in different HD models (Choudhary et al, 2013). Considering the role of oxidative stress and chronic inflammation in the ALS pathophysiology, natural compounds targeting such stressors are supposed to be effective alone or in combination with other natural/chemical substances to find new therapeutic approach for ALS management (Nabavi et al, 2015).…”

Microbial and Natural Metabolites That Inhibit Splicing: A Powerful Alternative for Cancer Treatment

“…This extract has also been shown to increase adiponectin secretion [ 92 ] and the activity of AMP-kinases [ 93 ]. Considering these biological activities, Isoginkgetin has been a candidate compound to treat disorders like diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, and other neurodegenerative diseases [ 94 ].…”