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This book deals with neurotrophins (NGF, BDNF, NT3, NT4), which can decrease cell death, induce differentiation, as well as sustain the structure and function of neurons. This makes neurotrophins potential therapeutic agents for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. However, these proteins have so far been ineffective in clinical trials mostly because they cannot pass the blood-brain barrier owing to their high-molecular weights. Consequently, small molecules that mimic neurotrophins and stimulate the synthesis of endogenous neurotrophins or enhance their neurotrophic actions are expected to be promising alternatives. Small-molecule natural products, which have been used in dietary functional foods or in traditional medicine over the course of human history, have potential to be developed as new therapeutic agents against neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease. In this book, the authors introduce a variety of natural products possessing neurotrophic properties such as neurogenesis, neurite outgrowth promotion (neuritogenesis), and neuroprotection and focus on the chemistry and biology of several neurotrophic natural products.

This book presents recent reports of total syntheses involving a photocatalytic reaction as a key step in the methodology. Modern photocatalysis has proven its generality for the development and functionalization of native functionalities. To date, the field has found broad applications in diverse research areas, including the total synthesis of natural products. Among the selected examples presented in this book, it highlights how the photocatalytic process proceeds in a highly chemo-, regio-, and stereoselective manner, thereby allowing the rapid access to structurally complex architectures under light-driven conditions.

This book describes current understandings and recent progress into a varied group of natural products. In the first chapter the role that total synthesis may play in revising the structures proposed for decanolides, which are ten-membered lactones found primarily in fungi, frogs, and termites is presented. The following chapter presents the development of the intriguing plant-derived sesquiterpene lactone, thapsigargin, a potent inhibitor of the enzyme, SERCA (sarco-endoplasmic Ca2+ ATPase), which has potential as a lead compound to treat cancer. The third chapter covers the potential of various plant phenolic compounds for treating the tropical and sub-tropical infectious disease, leishmaniasis. In addition the volume presents recent advances related to the plant alkaloid, cryptolepine, which is of particular interest as a lead for the treatment of malaria, trypanosomiasis, and cancer.