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Introduction: Nutraceuticals are food-derived products offering supplementary health benefits. These nutraceuticals have been found effective in the treatment of the Parkinson's disease (PD) as they possess multifaceted effects against neurodegeneration. Nutraceuticals have proven their safety and efficacy in several pre-clinical and clinical trials against PD, however, still there is an urgent need to report the health benefits of nutraceuticals on a broader platform and evaluate their complete molecular mechanism against PD. Area covered: The review emphasizes the role of nutraceuticals in combating pathogenic mechanisms associated with PD. These include, mitochondrial dysfunction, protein ubiquitination, oxidative stress, excitotoxicity, neurotransmitter imbalance, neuroinflammation, inhibition of PPAR-ϒ/PGC-1α/NRF-2, and PON2 signaling pathways. The review also includes pre-clinical and clinical aspects of nutraceuticals in balancing the impaired gut-brain axis in PD. Expert opinion: In recent years there have been many reports on neuroprotective potential of PD. The growing interest showed that various supplements, including polyphenols, vitamins, minerals, and the Mediterranean diet, can aid promising therapeutic properties for relieving PD symptoms. However, at present, there is no specific nutraceutical that has been designed to treat the symptoms of PD. Future studies on nutraceuticals may focus on developing individualized as well as customized therapies using specialized nutraceuticals based on epigenetics and the expression of PD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogels are insoluble three-dimensional polymer networks that are water insoluble but can absorb large amounts of water or biological fluid. They can be prepared using a variety of polymers, including both synthetic and natural ones. Either physical crosslinking, chemical crosslinking, or both are used for the preparation of polymeric hydrogels. Hydrogels made from natural polymers like chitosan, gelatin, alginate, cellulose, and hyaluronic acid are promising biomaterials for applications in tissue engineering, cosmetics, agriculture, wound healing, etc. because of their high biocompatibility and biodegradability. The present work reviews the classification of natural polymer-based hydrogels, properties, cross-linking methods, characterization, and their biomedical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Short hyperglycaemic episodes trigger metabolic memory (MM) in which managing hyperglycaemia alone is not enough to tackle the progression of Diabetic nephropathy on the epigenetic axis. We used a structural similarity search approach to identify phytochemicals similar to natural epigenetic modifiers and docked with SIRT1 protein and did ADME studies. We found that UMB was 84.3% similar to esculetin. Upon docking, we found that UMB had a binding energy of −9.2 kcal/mol while the standard ligand had −11.8 kcal/mol. ADME showed UMB to be a good lead. 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay showed it to be a good antioxidant with IC50 of 107 µg/mL and MTT stands for 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) showed that it does not promote cell death. Oxidative biomarkers in vitro showed UMB was able to ameliorate glycemic memory induced by high glucose. Western blot revealed decreased histone acetylation under hyperglycaemic conditions and upon treatment with UMB along with DR, its levels increased. This led us to check our hypothesis of whether concomitant diet reversal (DR) together with UMB can alleviate high-fat diet-induced metabolic memory and diabetic nephropathy (DN) in SD rats. UMB was able to decrease blood glucose, lipid, renal, and liver profile concluding UMB was able to ameliorate DN and MM by increasing the histone acetylation level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A six-membered heterocyclic compound known as piperazine has two nitrogen atoms within a ring. Numerous studies have shown that piperazine has the potential to be a useful pharmacophore in many harmful pharmacological conditions, such as microbiocidal, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antioxidant, etc. In this present review, we highlighted the synthetic protocols for piperazine and its analogs and the synthetic protocol for piperazine via rearrangement reactions that have been adopted in recent years. The study also involved a listing of several patents (granted), which comprised important work on piperazine and its derivatives. Among all the methods, the most commonly adopted synthetic methods included the synthesis of piperazine analogs by diaza-cope, hydrolytic, Mumm, Ugi-smiles, [2 + 3] Stevens, Aza-witting, Curtius, Schmidt rearrangement reactions, etc. These synthetic protocols have also been compared based on different reaction conditions, feasibility, and economy to help the researchers in designing their work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Andrographis paniculata is a medicinal herb used extensively for various ailments and contains therapeutically active phytoconstituent, andrographolide (AN). Although hepatoprotective activity of AN is established, but their bioavailability is restricted due to its rapid clearance. The aim of this study, therefore, was to formulate AN herbosomes (ANH) through complexation with naturally occurring soya-phosphatidylcholine (SPC), in order to enhance absorption. Prepared andrographolide-soy phosphatidylcholine (AN-SPC) complex prepared was subjected for characterisation of complex and formation of vesicular system known as ANH using rotary evaporation techniques. This complex was subjected to in vitro study using everted small intestine sac technique which showed significantly increased absorption of AN from the ANH as compared to the plain AN. The hepatoprotective potential of ANH and plain AN was evaluated using carbon tetrachloride inducing hepatotoxicity rat model and compared, in which ANH equivalent to 50mg/kg of plain AN significantly restore serum glutamate oxalacetate transaminase (112.4 ± 9.67 for AN whereas 90.2 ± 4.23 for ANH) and serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase (109.3 ± 7.89 for AN whereas 90.6 ± 4.34 for ANH) level as compared to control group. The ANH showed significantly better absorption than plain AN and this effect of ANH was also comparable to the standard drug (Silymarin). The findings of present study reveal that ANH has better bioavailability as shown by in vitro absorption study and hence improved hepatoprotection as compared to plain AN at equivalent dose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]