Journal Article

Ellagic Acid: A Green Multi-Target Weapon That Reduces Oxidative Stress and Inflammation to Prevent and Improve the Condition of Alzheimer’s Disease

Alfei, Silvana, Zuccari, Guendalina

2025

Overview

Oxidative stress (OS), generated by the overrun of reactive species of oxygen and nitrogen (RONS), is the key cause of several human diseases. With inflammation, OS is responsible for the onset and development of clinical signs and the pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). AD is a multifactorial chronic neurodegenerative syndrome indicated by a form of progressive dementia associated with aging. While one-target drugs only soften its symptoms while generating drug resistance, multi-target polyphenols from fruits and vegetables, such as ellagitannins (ETs), ellagic acid (EA), and urolithins (UROs), having potent antioxidant and radical scavenging effects capable of counteracting OS, could be new green options to treat human degenerative diseases, thus representing hopeful alternatives and/or adjuvants to one-target drugs to ameliorate AD. Unfortunately, in vivo ETs are not absorbed, while providing mainly ellagic acid (EA), which, due to its trivial water-solubility and first-pass effect, metabolizes in the intestine to yield UROs, or irreversible binding to cellular DNA and proteins, which have very low bioavailability, thus failing as a therapeutic in vivo. Currently, only UROs have confirmed the beneficial effect demonstrated in vitro by reaching tissues to the extent necessary for therapeutic outcomes. Unfortunately, upon the administration of food rich in ETs or ETs and EA, URO formation is affected by extreme interindividual variability that renders them unreliable as novel clinically usable drugs. Significant attention has therefore been paid specifically to multitarget EA, which is incessantly investigated as such or nanotechnologically manipulated to be a potential “lead compound” with protective action toward AD. An overview of the multi-factorial and multi-target aspects that characterize AD and polyphenol activity, respectively, as well as the traditional and/or innovative clinical treatments available to treat AD, constitutes the opening of this work. Upon focus on the pathophysiology of OS and on EA’s chemical features and mechanisms leading to its antioxidant activity, an all-around updated analysis of the current EA-rich foods and EA involvement in the field of AD is provided. The possible clinical usage of EA to treat AD is discussed, reporting results of its applications in vitro, in vivo, and during clinical trials. A critical view of the need for more extensive use of the most rapid diagnostic methods to detect AD from its early symptoms is also included in this work.

• Publisher: MDPI AG,MDPI
• Subject: Acids / Alzheimer Disease - drug therapy / Alzheimer Disease - metabolism / Alzheimer Disease - prevention & control / Alzheimer's disease / Animals / Antioxidants / Antioxidants - pharmacology / Antioxidants - therapeutic use / Cardiovascular disease / Clinical trials / Dementia / Diabetes / Drug resistance / Drugs / Ellagic Acid - chemistry / Ellagic Acid - pharmacology / Ellagic Acid - therapeutic use / Enzymes / Food / Fruits / Humans / Inflammation - drug therapy / Inflammation - metabolism / Keywords / Kinases / Microbiota / Neurodegeneration / Oxidative stress / Oxidative Stress - drug effects / Pathogenesis / Polyphenols / Review / Vegetables