Abstract
Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s
and Prion-related diseases are age-related progressive disorders. Among
neurodegenerative diseases, Parkinson’s disease is the second most common disease
after Alzheimer’s. Every year, millions of people were affected by Parkinson’s disease.
The formation of α-synuclein protein aggregation associated with degeneration of
dopaminergic neurons is the main pathological hallmark of PD. Patients suffering from
this disease live in an impairing condition and impose huge financial as well as
psychological burdens on society. However, there is no definite treatment till now that
can be used to treat Parkinson’s disease patients. The current treatment approaches only
provide symptomatic relief but can not reverse the disease condition. Hence, there is a
need to identify novel, definitive and minimal toxicity-exhibiting treatments for PD.
Natural products, specifically medicinal plants, due to their never-matched chemical
diversity, always act as a better source for drug discovery. Here, in this chapter, we
have selected andrographolide, a plant-derived secondary metabolite of labdane
triterpenoid extracted from Andrographis paniculate, a traditional herb.
Andrographolide shows its neuroprotective potential in PD via exhibiting multiple
mechanisms like decreasing neuroinflammation induced by microglial activation. Activating HSF1 and NRF2-mediated autophagy mechanisms in clearing α-synuclein
protein aggregation and regenerating the degenerated dopaminergic neurons,
ameliorate the PD symptoms. In this possible way, andrographolide provides a better
chance to develop a novel therapeutic tool for treating Parkinson’s disease in the near
future.