Current Neurogenic and Neuroprotective Strategies to Prevent and Treat Neurodegenerative and Neuropsychiatric Disorders.

The adult central nervous system is commonly known to have a very limited regenerative capacity. The presence of functional stem cells in the brain can therefore be seen as a paradox, since in other organs these are known to counterbalance cell loss derived from pathological conditions. This fact has therefore raised the possibility to stimulate neural stem cell differentiation and proliferation or survival by either stem cell replacement therapy or direct administration of neurotrophic factors or other proneurogenic molecules, which in turn has also originated regenerative medicine for the treatment of otherwise incurable neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders that take a huge toll on society. This may be facilitated by the fact that many of these disorders converge on similar pathophysiological pathways: excitotoxicity, oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, mitochondrial failure, excessive intracellular calcium and apoptosis. This review will therefore focus on the most promising achievements in promoting neuroprotection and neuroregeneration reported to date.

Produtos naturais ativadores de PPAR e marcadores associados ao processo inflamatório na Síndrome Metabólica / The inflammatory process in the metabolic syndrome: PPAR activators of natural products and markers associated with metabolic disorders

O processo inflamatório é o elo entre a síndrome metabólica e as doenças cardiovasculares. Para verificar a presença e o grau da inflamação, vários biomarcadores têm sido propostos e investigados. Este trabalho tem como objetivo revisar as recentes pesquisas que associam alguns marcadores expressos no tecido adiposo, enfatizando, dentre eles, a adiponectina, a resistina, a leptina e o transportador de glicose GLUT-4 na síndrome metabólica, a relação da inflamação decorrente desse conjunto de desordens metabólicas sob os receptores proliferadores peroxissomais (PPARs), bem como o efeito de diferentes extratos vegetais e produtos naturais bioativos na ativação desses receptores.

The inflammatory process is the link between metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular diseases. To verify the presence and degree of inflammation, several biomarkers have been proposed and different receptors have been investigated. This study aims to review recent researches involving some markers expressed in the adipose tissue, emphasizing, among them, adiponectin, resistin, leptin and glucose transporter GLUT-4 in the metabolic syndrome, the relationship of inflammation arising from this set of metabolic disorders on the peroxisome proliferator receptors (PPARs) and the effect of different bioactive compounds in the activation of these receptors.