A healthy Central Nervous System (CNS) takes care of the functioning of the whole body. Any dysfunction of the CNS can be manifested by disorders of sleep, speech, perception, or thinking. The most common age-related CNS diseases are represented by neurodegenerative conditions (e.g Alzheimer's, Parkinson). These conditions are accompanied by age-associated comorbidities (e.g cognitive decline, depressive behavior, or circadian rhythm disturbances) that may persist after the remission stage and decrease the functional recovery. In the last decades, due to the progress of ethnopharmacology, the interest to discover new bioactive natural compounds for the prevention and treatment of different CNS disorders has led to a resurgence of interest in medicinal plants. The biological properties of medicinal plants are determined by one or more bioactive compounds contained. These are small molecules, including primary and secondary plant metabolites. Advances in pharmaceutical chemistry have facilitated the reproduction of these bioactive ingredients.
Bioactive compounds can be modified to increase their effectiveness by increasing absorption and bioavailability and reducing the undesired side effects. They are still the basis of some contemporary medicines for the prevention or treatment of CNS disorders. The advantages of CNS diseases pharmacotherapy with natural products and their bioactive compounds are numerous: reduced side effects; addressability of an ageing population; use in parallel with allopathic medicines; prevents and not only treats; slow and prolonged action, giving the possibility to restore and regenerate damaged structures; active substances in plants act synergistically; and the presence of immunomodulatory properties that target neuroinflammation and modulate the brain structure and behavior.
With this Research Topic, we want to draw attention to the impact of natural derivatives in CNS disorders, with emphasis on molecular and cellular mechanisms, single or multiple biological targets; the safety of use, and possible interactions. We welcome you to contribute to this collection with Review, Mini-review, Perspectives, General Commentaries, Protocols, and Original Research articles, focusing on the medicinal properties of natural bioactive compounds with a beneficial effect on neurodegenerative disorders.
This Research Topic will cover the following subtopics:
• Natural bioactive compounds and natural medicinal products for the prevention and pharmacotherapy of neurodegenerative disorders and associated comorbidities;
• Nutraceuticals containing phytochemicals with antiaging effect by increase neuroprotection and brain plasticity;
• Biological targets for natural products;
• New technologies used for the optimal pharmaceutical formulation of bioactive compounds from herbal medicines (e.g nanoformulation, exosomal/liposomal delivery);
• Biological activity and mechanism of action that is underlying the pharmacological activity;
• Multimodal approaches of age-related neurodegenerative disorders therapy and associated comorbidities.
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One can find more information about the Article Type guidelines in the Ethnopharmacology section
here.
All the manuscripts submitted to this project will be peer-reviewed and need to fully comply with the
Four Pillars of Best Practice in Ethnopharmacology (you can freely download the full version
here).
