Neurotrophic Natural Products: Chemistry and Biology

Abstract

Neurodegenerative diseases and spinal cord injury affect approximately 50 million people worldwide, bringing the total healthcare cost to over 600 billion dollars per year. Nervous system growth factors, that is, neurotrophins, are a potential solution to these disorders, since they could promote nerve regeneration. An average of 500 publications per year attests to the significance of neurotrophins in biomedical sciences and underlines their potential for therapeutic applications. Nonetheless, the poor pharmacokinetic profile of neurotrophins severely restricts their clinical use. On the other hand, small molecules that modulate neurotrophic activity offer a promising therapeutic approach against neurological disorders. Nature has provided an impressive array of natural products that have potent neurotrophic activities. This Review highlights the current synthetic strategies toward these compounds and summarizes their ability to induce neuronal growth and rehabilitation. It is anticipated that neurotrophic natural products could be used not only as starting points in drug design but also as tools to study the next frontier in biomedical sciences: the brain activity map project.

The chemistry of the carbon-transition metal double and triple bond: Annual survey covering the year 2014

“…74) [318]; (7) a tris(norbornenecarboxylate) connected to a carbon nanotube [319]; (8) bis(norbornenecarboxylate ester)s (e.g. 73) [320]; (9) 5-ethylidenenorbornene (68) [321], including its use as a part of a self-healing system [322]; (10) vinylnorbornene [323]; (11) tetracyclododecene (69) [324]; (12) norbornadienes connected to various hydrophobic groups, including a steroid system [325]; (13) dicyclopentadiene [326,327,328,329,330,331,332,333,334,335,336], including polymerizations performed in the presence zinc oxide nanoparticles [337], urea formaldehyde microcapsules [338],mildly oxidized graphene oxide [339], barium titanate [340], and high internal phase emulsions [341,342]; (14) the norbornadiene-anthracene Diels-Alder adduct (76) [343,344]; (15) norbornenedicarboxylate esters connected to cyanobiphenyl groups [345], to anthracene groups [346], and to nitroxide groups (e.g. 79) [347]; (16) the three stereoisomeric dimethyl norbornenedicarboxylates (determination of the relative rates of ROMP) [348]; …”

“…Specific compounds or compound classes represented include: (1) tetrahydropyrans [53]; (2) cyclopentenones [54]; (3) 3,4,5-trisubstituted isoxazolines [55]; (4) carbocyclic nucleosides [56]; (5) lycopodium alkaloids [57,58]; (6) cyclic hydrazines and azo compounds [59]; (7) tropone and tropolone natural products [60]; (8) seven-membered ring natural products [61]; [62]; (9) tetrahydroisoquinoline-3-carboxylic acid derivatives [63]; (10) chalcones and their heterocyclic derivatives [64]; (11) marine-derived cyclic ethers [65]; (12) pericosine and related marinederived carbasugar natural products [66]; (13) carbohydrate derived macrocyclic compounds [67]; (14) neurotrophic natural products [68]; (15) isodon diterpenes [69]; (16) non-isoprenoid polyene natural products [70]; (17) heterophosphacyclanes [71]; (18) chlorosulfolipids [72]; (19) seven-membered ring sulfur heterocycles; (20) organic cage compounds [73]; (21) presilphiperfolanols [74]; (22) pleuromutilin [75]; (23) hyperforin [76]; (24)…”

A natural diarylheptanoid promotes neuronal differentiation via activating ERK and PI3K-Akt dependent pathways

“…A wide variety of chemicals derived from natural sources exhibit potent bioactivities on neuronal differentiation and morphogenesis (More et al, 2012;Xu et al, 2013Xu et al, , 2014. Curcuminoids, a group of natural diarylheptanoids found in the dietary spice turmeric of the ginger family (Zingiberaceae), exhibit multi-faceted activities in neurogenesis, neuronal differentiation and neuroprotection (Kim et al, 2008;Dong et al, 2012;Liao et al, 2012;Lu et al, 2014;Nam et al, 2014), and show therapeutic potential in preventing or treating a number of neurological diseases (Hamaguchi et al, 2010;Darvesh et al, 2012;Monroy et al, 2013;Ahmed and Gilani, 2014).…”

Synthesis and properties of poly(p-phenylene terephthalamide) bearing both polar and unsaturated substituents introduced via claisen rearrangement reaction

“…[36][37][38][39] Much work has been carried out in small molecules but rare in macromolecules. In our previous short communication, 40 we reported a facile and efficient method to obtain a novel PPTA bearing both apolar allyl and polar hydroxy groups on each terephthaloyl unit by a combination of the step-growth polymerization and subsequent thermally induced CR.…”