Herbs to curb cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase and their potential role in Alzheimer’s disease

Publication date: Available online 4 June 2015 Source:Mechanisms of Ageing and Development Author(s): Ashwani Kumar , Vishavdeep Sharma , Vijay Pal Singh , Madhu Kaundal , Manish Kumar Gupta , Jitender Bariwal , Rahul Deshmukh Cyclic nucleotides viz., cAMP/cGMP has been well known to play important role in cellular function and deficiency in their levels has been implicated in the pathogenesis of various neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Phosphodiesterases (PDE) are the enzymes involved in the metabolism of cyclic nucleotides and the inhibition of phosphodiesterases is considered to be viable strategy to restore the level of cyclic nucleotides and their functions in the brain. Various synthetic PDE inhibitors had been used clinically for various disorders and also suggested to be useful candidates for treating neurological disorders. However, side effects of these synthetic PDE inhibitors have limited their use in clinical practice. Natural plant extracts or their bio-active compounds are considered to be safe and are widely acceptable. During the last decade, many plant extracts or their bio-active compounds were tested pre-clinically for PDE inhibitory activity and are reported to be equally potent in inhibiting PDE’s, as that of synthetic compounds. The present review is aimed to discuss the potential plant extract/compounds with PDE inhibitory activity and critically discuss their potential role in Alzheimer’s disease. Graph...

Source: Mechanisms of Ageing and Development - June 11, 2015 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research