Ursolic acid in health and disease

Abstract

Ursolic acid (UA) is a natural triterpene compound found in various fruits and vegetables. There is a growing interest in UA because of its beneficial effects, which include anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-apoptotic, and anti-carcinogenic effects. It exerts these effects in various tissues and organs: by suppressing nuclear factor-kappa B signaling in cancer cells, improving insulin signaling in adipose tissues, reducing the expression of markers of cardiac damage in the heart, decreasing inflammation and increasing the level of anti-oxidants in the brain, reducing apoptotic signaling and the level of oxidants in the liver, and reducing atrophy and increasing the expression levels of adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase and irisin in skeletal muscles. Moreover, UA can be used as an alternative medicine for the treatment and prevention of cancer, obesity/diabetes, cardiovascular disease, brain disease, liver disease, and muscle wasting (sarcopenia). In this review, we have summarized recent data on the beneficial effects and possible uses of UA in health and disease managements.

Ursolic Acid and Its Derivatives as Bioactive Agents

“…UA has a low solubility in water, but high solubility in alcoholic sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and glacial acetic acid [54][55][56][57]. The UA chemical formula is C 30 H 48 O 3 , with a melting point of 283-285 • C. The properties of the UA structure indicate that it has a molecular weight of 456.7g/mol [20,52,53,58]. UA is mainly biosynthesized by folding and cycling squalene from a dammarenyl cation, which makes the third UA ring by expanding the ring and creating an added ring [58].…”

“…The UA chemical formula is C 30 H 48 O 3 , with a melting point of 283-285 • C. The properties of the UA structure indicate that it has a molecular weight of 456.7g/mol [20,52,53,58]. UA is mainly biosynthesized by folding and cycling squalene from a dammarenyl cation, which makes the third UA ring by expanding the ring and creating an added ring [58]. The biosynthesis of UA found in plant cells originates from the cyclical (3S)-oxidosqualene cycling.…”

“…Wu and colleagues (2017) produced several UA derivatives (47)(48)(49)(50)(51)(52)(53)(54)(55)(56)(57)(58)(59)(60)(61) in an effort to study the greater power and bioavailability of the UA by adding an acyl group at position C-3 to make the most of the structure-activity relationship. They further synthesized ester derivatives by a process of esterification with suitable acid chlorides in the presence of a DMAP catalyst.…”

Anticancer effect of ursolic acid via mitochondria‑dependent pathways (Review)

“…UA induced the phosphorylation of adenosine 5'-monophosphate (AMP)-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and stimulated expression of sirtuin 1, thus serving an antihyperlipidemic role (26). UA can provide hepatoprotective activity against several liver diseases, including fatty liver, liver fibrosis, hepatocellular carcinoma and other types of liver cancer by influencing multiple metabolic factors (28). For instance, UA reduced the serum/plasma levels of alanine transaminase and aspartate transaminase, which are liver disease biomarkers (27,29,30).…”

Glycyrrhizin protects against sodium iodate‐induced RPE and retinal injury though activation of AKT and Nrf2/HO‐1 pathway

“…Despite substantial progress in the development of new therapies for wet AMD using inhibition of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), the severe visual impairment associated with geographic atrophy in dry AMD remains untreatable . Recently, medicinal plants that produce ursolic acid have been reported to successfully prevent cell death in heart, liver and neurosystem . Thus, it is necessary to investigate natural compounds derived from plants for the prevention of atrophic AMD.…”