REVIEW article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Ethnopharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1643426
Microalgal bioactives as emerging nutritional regulators of apoptosis and neuroplasticity: Targeting metabolic dysfunction in aging, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer
Provisionally accepted
- Beijing University of Chinese Medicine Third Affiliated Hospital, Beijing, China
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Microalgae are a rich source of multifunctional bioactive metabolites, such as carotenoids, polyunsaturated fatty acids, phycobiliproteins, and phenolics, that influence cellular metabolism, redox balance, and gene expression. Evidence from in vitro, in vivo, and limited clinical studies shows their dual capacity to support neuronal survival and plasticity while inducing apoptosis in cancer cells. In neurodegenerative diseases, these metabolites improve mitochondrial function, reduce neuroinflammation, enhance neurotrophic factor expression, and promote synaptic remodeling. In cancer, they trigger cell-cycle arrest, inhibit angiogenesis and metastasis, and activate both intrinsic and extrinsic apoptotic pathways. Literature for this review was identified through structured searches in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar (2000–2025) using predefined keywords, with inclusion limited to peer-reviewed English studies on microalgal metabolites and apoptosis or neuroprotection. This review critically examines mechanistic, translational, and safety evidence, highlighting both therapeutic promise and current limitations, and proposes microalgae-derived metabolites as potential dual-action modulators for oncology and neurology.
Keywords: Microalgae, Apoptosis, Neurodegenerative Diseases, Cancer, molecular pathways
Received: 09 Jun 2025; Accepted: 02 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Aili Wang, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine Third Affiliated Hospital, Beijing, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.