Marine Drugs (Jul 2024)

Seaweeds as Source of Bioactive Pigments with Neuroprotective and/or Anti-Neurodegenerative Activities: Astaxanthin and Fucoxanthin

  • Estela Guardado Yordi,
  • Amaury Pérez Martínez,
  • Matteo Radice,
  • Laura Scalvenzi,
  • Reinier Abreu-Naranjo,
  • Eugenio Uriarte,
  • Lourdes Santana,
  • Maria Joao Matos

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/md22070327
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 22, no. 7
p. 327

Abstract

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The marine kingdom is an important source of a huge variety of scaffolds inspiring the design of new drugs. The complex molecules found in the oceans present a great challenge to organic and medicinal chemists. However, the wide variety of biological activities they can display is worth the effort. In this article, we present an overview of different seaweeds as potential sources of bioactive pigments with activity against neurodegenerative diseases, especially due to their neuroprotective effects. Along with a broad introduction to seaweed as a source of bioactive pigments, this review is especially focused on astaxanthin and fucoxanthin as potential neuroprotective and/or anti-neurodegenerative agents. PubMed and SciFinder were used as the main sources to search and select the most relevant scientific articles within the field.

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