Curcumin, Resveratrol and Cannabidiol as Natural Key Prototypes in Drug Design for Neuroprotective Agents

Flávia P Dias Viegas; Vanessa Silva Gontijo; Matheus de Freitas Silva; Cindy Juliet Cristancho Ortiz; Graziella Dos Reis Rosa Franco; Januário Tomás Ernesto; Caio Miranda Damasio; Isabela Marie Fernandes Silva; Thâmara Gaspar Campos; Claudio Viegas

doi:10.2174/1570159X19666210712152532

Curcumin, Resveratrol and Cannabidiol as Natural Key Prototypes in Drug Design for Neuroprotective Agents

Curr Neuropharmacol. 2022;20(7):1297-1328. doi: 10.2174/1570159X19666210712152532.

Authors

Flávia P Dias Viegas^{1

2}, Vanessa Silva Gontijo^{1

3}, Matheus de Freitas Silva^{1

2}, Cindy Juliet Cristancho Ortiz^{1

2}, Graziella Dos Reis Rosa Franco^{1

2}, Januário Tomás Ernesto^{1

3}, Caio Miranda Damasio¹, Isabela Marie Fernandes Silva¹, Thâmara Gaspar Campos¹, Claudio Viegas^{1

3

2}

Affiliations

¹ PeQuiM - Laboratory of Research in Medicinal Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Federal University of Alfenas, Alfenas, 37133-840, Brazil.
² Programa de Pós-Graduação em Química, Federal University of Alfenas, 37133-840, Alfenas, Brazil.
³ Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Farmacêuticas, Federal University of Alfenas, Alfenas, 37133-840, Brazil.

Abstract

Nowadays, neurodegenerative diseases (NDs), such as Parkinson's disease (PD), Alzheimer's disease (AD), Huntington's disease (HD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), represent a great challenge in different scientific fields, such as neuropharmacology, medicinal chemistry, molecular biology and medicine, as all these pathologies remain incurable, with high socioeconomic impacts and high costs for governmental health services. Due to their severity and multifactorial pathophysiological complexity, the available approved drugs for clinic have not yet shown adequate effectiveness and exhibited very restricted options in the therapeutic arsenal; this highlights the need for continued drug discovery efforts in the academia and industry. In this context, natural products, such as curcumin (1), resveratrol (2) and cannabidiol (CBD, 3) have been recognized as important sources, with promising chemical entities, prototype models and starting materials for medicinal organic chemistry, as their molecular architecture, multifunctional properties and single chemical diversity could facilitate the discovery, optimization and development of innovative drug candidates with improved pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics compared to the known drugs and, perhaps, provide a chance for discovering novel effective drugs to combat NDs. In this review, we report the most recent efforts of medicinal chemists worldwide devoted to the exploration of curcumin (1), resveratrol (2) and cannabidiol (CBD, 3) as starting materials or privileged scaffolds in the design of multi-target directed ligands (MTDLs) with potential therapeutic properties against NDs, which have been published in the scientific literature during the last 10 years of research and are available in PubMed, SCOPUS and Web of Science databases.

Keywords: Neuroprotection; cannabidiol; curcumin; molecular hybridization; neurodegenerative diseases; rational drug design; resveratrol.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Cannabidiol* / pharmacology
Cannabidiol* / therapeutic use
Curcumin* / pharmacology
Curcumin* / therapeutic use
Drug Design
Humans
Neurodegenerative Diseases* / drug therapy
Neuroprotective Agents* / chemistry
Neuroprotective Agents* / pharmacology
Neuroprotective Agents* / therapeutic use
Resveratrol / pharmacology
Resveratrol / therapeutic use

Substances

Neuroprotective Agents
Cannabidiol
Curcumin
Resveratrol

Grants and funding

001/Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brazil (CAPES)