Phytochemicals: Promising Alternatives for Metabolic Regulation in Neurodegenerative Diseases

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) are the disorders which involve the degeneration of neurons, particularly present in the central nervous system (CNS). Despite the significant efforts and understanding of the major pathways involved in the NDDs, there is no cure of these debilitating diseases. Presently, for the treatment of NDDs, some conventional drugs are available, but they are very expensive and in addition exhibit side effects. Since plant-based drugs are believed to be effective and relatively safe with strong antioxidant property, free radical scavenging, and anti-inflammatory abilities with least side effects, several groups are working to find out suitable bioactive compounds for the treatment of different NDDs such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), Huntington’s disease (HD), and multiple sclerosis (MS). These diseases usually result from altered energy homeostasis, metabolic defects, inflammation, and ultimately from neuronal death. More than 15 phytochemicals have been reported to ameliorate the common NDDs. As per the published literature, most of the effective phytochemicals have high antioxidative and anti-inflammatory properties. In this chapter, we have discussed the potential role of some bioactive compounds as critical phytochemicals for the treatment of NDDs with respect to their regulating properties and the mechanism of actions through different signalling pathways.