Natural products for Alzheimer's disease therapy: basic and application

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder associated with memory impairment and cognitive deficit, which is characterized with low levels of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the brain of the patients. Histopathological hallmarks of AD include deposition of β-amyloid (Aβ) plaques and formation of neurofibrillary tangles. It is generally accepted that AChE inhibitors (AChEi) can alleviate the symptoms of AD. Currently, most of the drugs available for the treatment of AD are AChEi: tacrine, donepezil, rivastigmine and galantamine. The research of novel drug candidates has shown that natural products such as plant extracts and plant-originated compounds have enormous potential to become drug leads with neuroprotective activity. For example, galantamine is a natural alkaloid first obtained from Galanthus spp. (USFDA approval in 2001). Huperzine A, an alkaloid found in Huperzia spp., is an AChE inhibitor commercialized as a dietary supplement for memory support, used to treat AD symptoms in China. Nevertheless, the search of natural products for treatment of from plants still draws considerably attention, and the number of papers published every year in this field is far from decline. This issue, which includes both original research and review papers, focus on the basic and application of natural products for managing AD. Andrade et al. [1]