An Overview and Therapeutic Promise of Nutraceuticals against Sports-Related Brain Injury

Sports-related traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the common neurological maladies experienced by athletes. Earlier the term 'punch drunk syndrome' was used in the case TBI of boxers and now this term is replaced by chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Sports-related brain injury can either be short term or long term. A common instance of brain injury encompasses subdural hematoma, concussion, cognitive dysfunction, amnesia, headache, vision issue, axonopathy, or even death if remain undiagnosed or untreated. Further, chronic TBI may lead to pathogenesis of neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration via tauopathy, formation of neurofibrillary tangles, and damage to the blood-brain barrier, microglial, and astrocyte activation. Thus, altered pathological, neurochemical, and neurometabolic attributes lead to the modulation of multiple signaling pathways and cause neurological dysfunction. Available pharmaceutical interventions are based on one drug one target hypothesis and thereby unable to cover altered multiple signaling pathways. However, in recent time's pharmacological intervention of nutrients and nutraceuticals have been explored as they exert a multifactorial mode of action and maintain over homeostasis of the body. There are various reports available showing the positive therapeutic effect of nutraceuticals in sport-related brain injury. Therefore, in the current article we have discussed the pathology, neurological consequence, sequelae, and perpetuation of sports-related brain injury. Further, we have discussed various nutraceutical supplements as well as available animal models to explore the neuroprotective effect/ upshots of these nutraceuticals in sports-related brain injury.

Role of Forkhead Transcription Factors of the O Class (FoxO) in Development and Progression of Alzheimer's Disease

In the Central Nervous System (CNS), a specific loss of focal neurons leads to mental and neurological disorders like dementia, Alzheimer's Disease (AD), Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, etc. AD is a neurological degenerative disorder, which is progressive and irreversible in nature and is the widely recognized reason for dementia in the geriatric populace. It affects 10% of people above the age of 65 and is the fourth driving reason for death in the United States. Numerous evidence suggests that the neuronal compartment is not the only genesis of AD, but transcription factors also hold significant importance in the occurrence and advancement of the disease. It is the need of the time to find the novel molecular targets and new techniques for treating or slowing down the progression of neurological disorders, especially AD. In this article, we summarised a conceivable association between transcriptional factors and their defensive measures against neurodegeneration and AD. The mammalian forkhead transcription factors of the class O (FoxO) illustrate one of the potential objectives for the development of new methodologies against AD and other neurocognitive disorders. The presence of FoxO is easily noticeable in the "cognitive centers" of the brain, specifically in the amygdala, hippocampus, and the nucleus accumbens. FoxO proteins are the prominent and necessary factors in memory formation and cognitive functions. FoxO also assumes a pertinent role in the protection of multiple cells in the brain by controlling the involving mechanism of autophagy and apoptosis and also modulates the process of phosphorylation of the targeted protein, thus FoxO must be a putative target in the mitigation of AD. This review features the role of FoxO as an important biomarker and potential new targets for the treatment of AD.