Natural products for the treatment of chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment and prospects of nose-to-brain drug delivery

Front Pharmacol. 2024 Jan 29:15:1292807. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2024.1292807. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

Chemotherapy-related cognitive deficits (CRCI) as one of the common adverse drug reactions during chemotherapy that manifest as memory, attention, and executive function impairments. However, there are still no effective pharmacological therapies for the treatment of CRCI. Natural compounds have always inspired drug development and numerous natural products have shown potential therapeutic effects on CRCI. Nevertheless, improving the brain targeting of natural compounds in the treatment of CRCI is still a problem to be overcome at present and in the future. Accumulated evidence shows that nose-to-brain drug delivery may be an excellent carrier for natural compounds. Therefore, we reviewed natural products with potential anti-CRCI, focusing on the signaling pathway of these drugs' anti-CRCI effects, as well as the possibility and prospect of treating CRCI with natural compounds based on nose-to-brain drug delivery in the future. In conclusion, this review provides new insights to further explore natural products in the treatment of CRCI.

Keywords: chemotherapy; cognitive deficits; mechanisms; natural products; nose-tobrain-drug-delivery.

Publication types

  • Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81830109, 82274173, 82204537), Shanghai Sailing Program (23YF1458100), and Jin-Zi-Ta Talent projects of Changzheng Hospital, China (0806).