Protective effect of flavonoids on oxidative stress injury in Alzheimer’s disease

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease, which is mainly caused by the damage of the structure and function of the central nervous system. At present, there are many adverse reactions in market-available drugs, which can’t significantly inhibit the occurrence of AD. Therefore, the current focus of research is to find safe and effective therapeutic drugs to improve the clinical treatment of AD. Oxidative stress bridges different mechanism hypotheses of AD and plays a key role in AD. Numerous studies have shown that natural flavonoids have good antioxidant effects. They can directly or indirectly resist ­oxidative stress, inhibit Aβ aggregation and Tau protein hyperphosphorylation by activating Nrf2 and other oxidation-antioxidation-related signals, regulating synaptic function-related pathways, promoting mitochondrial autophagy, etc., and play a neuroprotective role in AD. In this review, we summarised the mechanism of flavonoids inhibiting oxidative stress injury in AD in recent years. Moreover, because of the shortcomings of poor biofilm permeability and low bioavailability of flavonoids, the advantages and recent research progress of nano-drug delivery systems such as liposomes and solid lipid nanoparticles were highlighted. We hope this review provides a useful way to explore safe and effective AD treatments.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Alzheimer’s disease
• oxidative stress
• flavonoids
• flavanone
• isoflavones
• catechin
• silymarin

Acknowledgment

The manuscript of this review was composed by Kaixuan Wang under the guidance and advice of Xinmei Chen. All of the authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors assert that they have no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

Ministry of Education Industry-University Co-operation Project on Co laborative Education (No.230805236011230); Ministry of Education Industry-University Co-operation Project on Co laborative Education (No.220805236310802); The Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, School of Pharmaceutical sciences, “The cultivation of postgraduate students at the Faculty of Pharmacy” Outstanding Graduate Student Innovation Fund (No.2023-0018); The Shandong Province Postgraduate Quality Education and Teaching Resources Project Subjects (No.SDYKC2023043).