Polydatin inhibits LPS-induced inflammatory response in BV2 microglia by disrupting the formation of lipid rafts

Natural products for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases

BACKGROUND

Neurodegenerative diseases are among the most common diseases in older adults worldwide. Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) are two of the most common neurodegenerative diseases, and are accompanied by cerebral cortical atrophy, neuronal loss, protein accumulation, and excessive accumulation of metal ions. Natural products exhibit outstanding performance in improving cerebral circulatory disorders, promoting cerebral haematoma absorption, repairing damaged nerve tissue, and improving damaged nerve function. In recent years, studies have shown that neuroinflammatory mechanisms and signalling pathways closely related to the occurrence and development of neurological diseases include microglial activation, nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) pathway, mitogen activated protein kinases (MAPK) pathway, reactive oxygen pathway, nucleotide binding oligomerisation domain-like receptor protein3 (NLRP3) inflammasomes, toll-like receptor4 (TLR4) pathway, nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2)/hemeoxygenase-1 (HO-1) pathway, phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (Akt) pathway, and intestinal flora. Therefore, this study considered the mechanism of neurological diseases as the starting point to review the mechanism of action of natural products in the prevention and treatment of AD and PD in recent years to provide a theoretical basis for clinical prevention and treatment.

AIM

Natural products are a promising source of novel lead structures that have long been used to treat various nervous system diseases.

METHODOLOGY

This review collected literature on neurological diseases and natural products from 2012 to 2022, which were mainly searched through databases such as ScienceDirect, Springer, PubMed, SciFinder, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang, Google Scholar, and Baidu Academic. The following keywords were searched: neurological disorders, natural products, signalling pathway, mechanism of action.

RESULTS

This review summarises the pathogenesis of degenerative neurological diseases, recent findings on natural products used in neurodegenerative diseases, and the molecular mechanisms underlying these effects.

Using Network Pharmacology and Animal Experiment to Investigate the Therapeutic Mechanisms of Polydatin against Vincristine-Induced Neuropathic Pain

Background

Polydatin (PD) is the primary active compound in Polygonum cuspidatum Sieb and has been demonstrated to exert anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective activities. In the present study, we aimed to explore the therapeutic mechanisms of PD against chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain.

Methods

The putative targets of PD were obtained from the CTD and SwissTargetPrediction databases. Neuropathic pain- and VIN-related targets were collected from the CTD and GeneCards databases. Subsequently, the intersection targets were obtained using the Venn tool, and the protein-protein interaction (PPI) was constructed by the STRING database. GO and KEGG enrichment analyses were performed to investigate the biological functions of the intersection targets. Further, a rat model of VIN-induced neuropathic pain was established to confirm the reliability of the network pharmacology findings.

Results

A total of 46 intersection targets were identified as potential therapeutic targets, mainly related to neuroinflammation. KEGG pathway analysis indicated that the IL-17 signaling pathway was involved in the mechanism of the antinociceptive effect of PD. PPI network analysis indicated that RELA, IL-6, TP53, MAPK3, and MAPK1 were located at crucial nodes in the network. Additionally, PD exerted an antinociceptive effect by increasing the nociceptive threshold. The results of qRT-PCR, western blot, and immunohisochemistry indicated that PD inhibited the IL-6, TP53, and MAPK1 levels in VIN-induced neuropathic pain rats.

Conclusions

Overall, this research provided evidence that suppressing inflammatory signaling pathways might be a potential mechanism action of PD's antinociceptive effect against VIN-induced neuropathic pain.

Lipid Transporters Beam Signals from Cell Membranes

Lipid composition in cellular membranes plays an important role in maintaining the structural integrity of cells and in regulating cellular signaling that controls functions of both membrane-anchored and cytoplasmic proteins. ATP-dependent ABC and P4-ATPase lipid transporters, two integral membrane proteins, are known to contribute to lipid translocation across the lipid bilayers on the cellular membranes. In this review, we will highlight current knowledge about the role of cholesterol and phospholipids of cellular membranes in regulating cell signaling and how lipid transporters participate this process.