Pathways to healing: plants with therapeutic potential for neurodegenerative diseases

Tyler, S. E. B., & Tyler, L. D. K. (2023). Pathways to healing: plants with therapeutic potential for neurodegenerative diseases. IBRO Neuroscience Reports. doi:10.1016/j.ibneur.2023.01.006 

This study aimed to find plants with therapeutic bioactivities for a range of NDs. 1339 of the 2001 plant species were found to have a bioactivity from the literature of therapeutic relevance to NDs such as Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, AD, motor neurone diseases, multiple sclerosis, prion diseases, Neimann-Pick disease, glaucoma, Friedreich's ataxia and Batten disease. 43 types of bioactivities were found, such as reducing protein misfolding, neuroinflammation, oxidative stress and cell death, and promoting neurogenesis, mitochondrial biogenesis, autophagy, longevity, and anti-microbial activity. Ethno-led plant selection was more effective than random selection of plant species. Our findings indicate that ethnomedicinal plants provide a large resource of ND therapeutic potential.

Bioactive fumarate improves cardiac function and expands lifespan in Friedrech’s ataxia

Salinas, L., Figueroa, F., Montgomery, C. B., Thai, P. N., Chiamvimonvat, N., Dugar, S., Sen, S., Cortopassi, G., & Dedkova, E. N. (2023). Bioactive fumarate improves cardiac function and expands lifespan in Friedrech’s ataxia. Biophysical Journal, 122(3), 96a. doi:10.1016/j.bpj.2022.11.714 

 Friedreich's ataxia (FA) is a recessive ataxia caused by reduction of mitochondrial protein, frataxin (FXN). Cardiomyopathy is the leading cause of death in FA patients due to deficient FXN expression in the heart. We have developed a novel monomethyl fumarate prodrug, IMF, which has improved pharmacokinetic profile and compared its effect to fumarate prodrug dimethyl fumarate (DMF, Tecfidera).