Herbs to curb cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase and their potential role in Alzheimer's disease. (July 2015) - Kumar, Ashwani
Graphical abstract: Highlights: The potential role of PDE inhibitors in Alzheimer's dieases. Natural plants as a source of bioactive inhibitors of phosphodiesterases. Pharmacophoric features required to inhibit phosphodiesterases. Potential role of herbs in the management of AD pathology. Abstract: Cyclic nucleotides viz ., cAMP/cGMP has been well known to play important role in cellular function and deficiency in their levels has been implicated in the pathogenesis of various neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer's disease (AD). Phosphodiesterases (PDE) are the enzymes involved in the metabolism of cyclic nucleotides and the inhibition of phosphodiesterases is considered to be viable strategy to restore the level of cyclic nucleotides and their functions in the brain. Various synthetic PDE inhibitors had been used clinically for various disorders and also suggested to be useful candidates for treating neurological disorders. However, side effects of these synthetic PDE inhibitors have limited their use in clinical practice. Natural plant extracts or their bio-active compounds are considered to be safe and are widely acceptable. During the last decade, many plant extracts or their bio-active compounds were tested pre-clinically for PDE inhibitory activity and are reported to be equally potent in inhibiting PDE's, as that of synthetic compounds. The present review is aimed to discuss the potential plant extract/compounds with PDE inhibitory activity and critically discuss their potential role in Alzheimer's disease.