Dietary Flavonoids in the Management of Huntington’s Disease: Mechanism and Clinical Perspective

Abstract

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive loss of neurons, which leads to behavioral systems and mental decline. HD is linked to repeat expansions of cytosine, adenine, and guanine in the Huntingtin (HTT) gene that give rise to mutation, leading to the formation of the HTT protein product. Oxidative stress also provokes the initiation and progression of HD as it leads to protein misfolding that results in the formation of inclusion which clumps together and alters neurotransmission. Despite the advancement in the field of pharmaceutical sciences, current therapeutic approaches suppress only the severity of symptoms and no therapy exists that can cure HD from its root cause. Flavonoids are the most abundant polyphenols widely present in daily dietary sources. Dietary flavonoids have a wide range of pharmacological bioactivities and many therapeutic applications. Dietary flavonoids including hesperidin, naringin, quercetin, rutin, fisetin, myricetin, luteolin, and epigallocatechin 3-O-gallate can prevent and manage HD through exerting antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, altering intracellular pathways, genetic alterations, and metal ion chelation. This review highlights flavonoids as therapeutic options for HD and will open new dimensions for flavonoids as safe and effective therapeutic agents in diminishing HD.

Keywords

• Anti-inflammatory
• antioxidant
• clinical perspective
• flavonoids
• Huntington’s disease
• intracellular pathways