Natural Polyphenols in Metabolic Syndrome: Protective Mechanisms and Clinical Applications

Abstract

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a chronic disease, including abdominal obesity, dyslipidemia, hyperglycemia, and hypertension. It should be noted that the occurrence of MetS is closely related to oxidative stress-induced mitochondrial dysfunction, ectopic fat accumulation, and the impairment of the antioxidant system, which in turn further aggravates the intracellular oxidative imbalance and inflammatory response. As enriched anti-inflammatory and antioxidant components in plants, natural polyphenols exhibit beneficial effects, including improving liver fat accumulation and dyslipidemia, reducing blood pressure. Hence, they are expected to be useful in the prevention and management of MetS. At present, epidemiological studies indicate a negative correlation between polyphenol intake and MetS incidence. In this review, we summarized and discussed the most promising natural polyphenols (including flavonoid and non-flavonoid drugs) in the precaution and treatment of MetS, including their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, as well as their regulatory functions involved in glycolipid homeostasis.

Relationship between Antioxidant Activity and Ligand Basicity in the Dipicolinate Series of Oxovanadium(IV) and Dioxovanadium(V) Complexes

“…The human body has many defense mechanisms that neutralize the harmful effects of reactive oxygen species. Antioxidants play an important role in reducing oxidative damage in the human body [1][2][3][4][5]. These are compounds which, even at a very low concentration, compared to the substrate, can delay or prevent its oxidation.…”

Natural polyphenols: a potential prevention and treatment strategy for metabolic syndrome

“…Among all flavonoids, flavonols and flavones are the largest subgroups of polyphenols, and are the main components of flavonoids. 22 Modern pharmacological studies found that flavonoids could improve the body's antioxidant and free radical scavenging. Therefore, they are powerful antioxidants.…”

“…Non-flavonoids are represented by phenolic acids, which typically have two distinct parent skeletons, including hydroxycinnamic acid and hydroxybenzoic acid. 22,91 Although there are not as many types and compounds of nonflavonoids as flavonoids, many compounds of non-flavonoids have shown better anti-metabolic syndrome effects, such as gallic acid, resveratrol, punicalagin and so on.…”

Chrysobalanus icaco L.: Fuente de fitoquímicos con potencial bioactivo contra el síndrome metabólico en México

“…It has been observed that particularly flavonoids such as flavonols (myricetin) and anthocyanins, decrease biochemical parameters related to MetS, such as hypercholesterolemia, obesity, inflammation, and diabetes, this in clinical studies, in addition to delaying the pathogenesis of comorbidities such as Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and inhibit inflammatory cytokines, helping to reduce cardiovascular events, this due to the antioxidant activity of flavonoids, thanks to the hydroxyl groups present; therefore these compounds are of high bioactive importance for human health due to their safety and efficacy (Zhang, Xu, Zhang, Liu & Chen, 2021;Ginwala, Bhavsar, Chigbu, Jain & Khan, 2019).…”