Therapeutic Potential of Natural Compounds from Herbs and Nutraceuticals in Alleviating Neurological Disorders: Targeting the Wnt Signaling Pathway

Abstract

As an important signaling pathway in multicellular eukaryotes, the Wnt signaling pathway participates in a variety of physiological processes. Recent studies have confirmed that the Wnt signaling pathway plays an important role in neurological disorders such as stroke, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease. The regulation of Wnt signaling by natural compounds in herbal medicines and nutraceuticals has emerged as a potential strategy for the development of new drugs for neurological disorders. Purpose: The aim of this review is to evaluate the latest research results on the efficacy of natural compounds derived from herbs and nutraceuticals in the prevention and treatment of neurological disorders by regulating the Wnt pathway in vivo and in vitro. A manual and electronic search was performed for English articles available from PubMed, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect from the January 2010 to February 2023. Keywords used for the search engines were "natural products,″ "plant derived products,″ "Wnt+ clinical trials,″ and "Wnt+,″ and/or paired with "natural products″/″plant derived products", and "neurological disorders." A total of 22 articles were enrolled in this review, and a variety of natural compounds from herbal medicine and nutritional foods have been shown to exert therapeutic effects on neurological disorders through the Wnt pathway, including curcumin, resveratrol, and querctrin, etc. These natural products possess antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and angiogenic properties, confer neurovascular unit and blood−brain barrier integrity protection, and affect neural stem cell differentiation, synaptic formation, and neurogenesis, to play a therapeutic role in neurological disorders. In various in vivo and in vitro studies and clinical trials, these natural compounds have been shown to be safe and tolerable with few adverse effects. Natural compounds may serve a therapeutic role in neurological disorders by regulating the Wnt pathway. This summary of the research progress of natural compounds targeting the Wnt pathway may provide new insights for the treatment of neurological disorders and potential targets for the development of new drugs.

Pharmacological Activities and Molecular Mechanisms of Sinapic Acid in Neurological Disorders

“…In recent years, there has been a growing interest in neuropharmacology to discover new therapeutic agents that can improve the underlying mechanisms of NDs . One promising field is the utilization of natural products containing secondary metabolites found in plants, which play a crucial role in drug discovery since the synthetic drugs could damage neurons due to their toxicity and might contribute to brain disorders because they modulate the activity of multiple brain circuits controlling decision-making power, memory, learning, and other functions. , To date, several plant-derived compounds, including polyphenols and mostly flavonoids like myricetin, naringenin, curcumin, luteolin, fisetin, cornin, hesperidin, apigenin, and quercetin, have proved to be promising neuroprotective agents due to their antioxidant, free radical clearance, anti-inflammatory, and antimutative properties. ,,− Studies have shown that flavonoids play a key role as antioxidants by activating SOD, CAT, and GPx, lowering GSH, and stopping lipid peroxidation. They also have anti-inflammatory properties that come from their ability to control tyrosine and serine–threonine kinases, cyclooxygenase (COX) and lipoxygenase suppression, and the production of proinflammatory molecules such as nitric oxide, prostaglandins, and leukotrienes.…”