Vincenzo Rispoli
University of Magna Graecia, Italy
Title: From popular medicine knowledge to evidence ethnopharmacolgy efficacy can nature give us the tools to fight human neurodegenerative diseases?
Biography
Biography: Vincenzo Rispoli
Abstract
From the night of time, Man has always tried to relieve his suffering by turning his attention to Nature and seeking remedies
to cure the ills of his body. In recent decades, phytotherapy has been re-evaluated, not only because of the growing number of
patients who use it, but, above, all, since numerous preclinical and clinical researches have been able to demonstrate and confirm
the pharmacological bases of plant-based treatment, since acquired in the past from traditional medicine in empirical way. Today
phytotherapy has become a medical discipline in all aspects, because it applies the method and the rigor of scientific evidence. Here
it is addressed the history, current as well as the future perspective of AD treatment by Ethnomedicine, taking into consideration
the probable causes and preventive mechanisms together with the treatment methods. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an irreversible,
slowly progressive neuodegenerative disease of the brain, and it is characterized by memory deficits and progressive cognitive
impairment, accompanied by neuropsychiatric changes. It has become the fourth leading cause of death in developed countries.
The main symptoms of AD are primarily caused by a cholinergic dysfunction due to degeneration of basal cholinergic forebrain
(BCF). in particular, consistent neuronal loss into the nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM), which produces a reduced cholinergic input
to target areas such as cerebral cortex and hippocampus. Pathogenic cause of AD remains incompletely understood. So, currently
acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs), which decrease the breakdown of the neurotransmitter, has been the main symptomatic
therapy for mild to moderate Alzheimer’s patients, approved by FDA. To date, AChEIs are considered the main pharmacological
strategy in the palliative approach in the therapy of AD; they undoubtedly, temporarily restore the disrupted cholinergic transmission
in brain. Consequently, the search for novel compounds is necessary. In recent times, several chemical and pharmacological studies
have searched for new drugs, in an attempt to extract and isolate from plants novel compound or better understand the effects of those
already known, in an effort to fight this terrible disease.
Conclusions: AD is a multi-causal and multi-factorial progressive neurodegenerative disease with complicated pathogenesis. Thus it
is likely that multiple drugs or drugs with poly-pharmacological activities will be the best therapeutic approaches to address the diverse
pathological aspects of the disease.Anti-cholinesterasic activities, anti-Aβ aggregation and anti-Aβ-induced oxidative injury such as
anti-NMDA-induced toxicity and anti-inflammatory activity showed by many herbal compounds, encourage their use as potential
disease-modifying drugs for neurodegenerative disorders, opening to new insight and future perspectives for a multi-functional
phytomedicine. From this point of view, we have to overcome our way to think Ethnomedicine and official medicine opposed each
other, or that orthodox medicine is better than traditional medicine, as well as phytotherapeutic remedies as an alternative to synthetic
drugs. The two pharmacological approaches are often, and it should always be, complementary; that is, to be able to complement each
other. Science and consciousness of physician will depend on the correct integration of. In conclusion, Evidence based pharmacology
(EBP) is the conscientious, explicit, judicious and reasonable use of modern, best pharmacotherapeutic evidence in making decisions
about the care of individual patients. EBP must integrate clinical experience and patient values with the best available research
information.
Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, Neurodegeneration, Multi-target drus, Disease-modifying therapy, Phytotherapy, Preventive
Mechanism, Treatment Methods.
rispoli@unicz.it