Open AccessPossible protective action of neurotrophic factors and natural compounds against common neurodegenerative diseases
Author(s) -
Tadahiro Numakawa
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
neural regeneration research/neural regeneration research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.93
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1876-7958
pISSN - 1673-5374
DOI - 10.4103/1673-5374.139474
Subject(s) - neurodegeneration , tropomyosin receptor kinase b , neuroscience , neurotrophic factors , brain derived neurotrophic factor , neurotrophin , downregulation and upregulation , disease , medicine , receptor , biology , biochemistry , gene
It has been suggested that altered levels/function of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) play a role in the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease. BDNF positively contributes to neural survival and synapse maintenance via stimulating its high affinity receptor TrkB, making upregulation of BDNF and/or activation of BDNF-related intracellular signaling an attractive approach to treating neurodegenerative diseases. In this short review, I briefly introduce small natural compounds such as flavonoids that successfully increase activation of the BDNF system and discuss their beneficial effects against neurodegeneration.