Linking phytosterols and oxyphytosterols from food to brain health: origins, effects, and underlying mechanisms

Abstract

Phytosterols and their oxidation products, namely oxyphytosterols, are natural compounds present in plant foods. With increased intake of phytosterol-enriched functional food products, the exposure of both phytosterols and oxyphytosterols is rising. Over the past ten years, researches have been focused on their absorption and metabolism in human body, as well as their biological effects. More importantly, recent studies showed that phytosterols and oxyphytosterols can traverse the blood–brain barrier and accumulate in the brain. As brain health problems resulting from ageing being more serious, attenuating central nervous system (CNS) disorders with active compounds in food are becoming a hot topic. Phytosterols and oxyphytosterols have been shown to implicated in cognition altering and the pathologies of several CNS disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis. We will overview these findings with a focus on the contents of phytosterols and oxyphytosterols in food and their dietary intake, as well as their origins in the brain, and illustrate molecular pathways through which they affect brain health, in terms of inflammation, cholesterol homeostasis, oxidative stress, and mitochondria function. The existing scientific gaps of phytosterols and oxyphytosterols to brain health in knowledge are also discussed, highlighting research directions in the future.

Keywords:

• Cholesterol homeostasis
• CNS
• inflammation
• oxidative stress
• oxyphytosterols
• phytosterols

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant [number 32072179] and [number 31772091]; Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant [number LD21C200001]; and National Major R&D Program of China under Grant [number 2017YFC1601701].