Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Activities of Phytochemicals

A special issue of Biomolecules (ISSN 2218-273X). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural and Bio-derived Molecules".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2025 | Viewed by 345

Special Issue Editors

School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE12 5RD, UK
Interests: assessment of the bioactive nature of natural and synthetic molecules, and their role in mediating cell signaling networks and health and disease processes in mammalian systems; the nutritional importance of antioxidants in the diets of humans, and the exploitation of dietary plants to improve health, particularly sulfur-containing compounds
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Guest Editor
1. School of Pharmacy and State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao 999078, China
2. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Bioactive Small Molecules, Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Fudan University, Shanghai 201203, China
Interests: inflammation; immune response; hydrogen sulfide; molecular mechanisms; drug discovery; natural product research; pharmacology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Plant-derived bioactives, which are alternatively referred to as plant secondary metabolites, are widely distributed in nature with many possessing antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. At the biochemical and molecular level, these compounds act on cell signaling systems in cells and mediate cellular responses to stress. Each year, new molecules with interesting biological properties are identified, and new biological roles for previously characterized compounds are described. These molecules are of key importance to scientists with interests in improving the quality of foods, or as target molecules that are useful in drug development. Collectively, many of these compounds are promising drug candidates, potential functional food ingredients, useful targets in plant breeding programs, or simply chemical tools used to manipulate cell signaling networks.

This Special Issue welcomes original research and reviews of literature on all aspects of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory phytochemicals that can be exploited in food sciences, pharmacology and human health.

Dr. Peter Rose
Prof. Dr. Yi Zhun Zhu
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • antioxidants
  • plant bioactives
  • inflammation
  • free radicals

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

25 pages, 2594 KiB  
Article
A Natural Polyphenol, Chlorogenic Acid, Attenuates Obesity-Related Metabolic Disorders in Male Rats via miR-146a-IRAK1-TRAF6 and NRF2-Mediated Antioxidant Pathways
by Rashid Fahed Alenezi, Adel Abdelkhalek, Gehad El-Sayed, Ioan Pet, Mirela Ahmadi, El Said El Sherbini, Daniela Pușcașiu and Ahmed Hamed Arisha
Biomolecules 2025, 15(8), 1086; https://doi.org/10.3390/biom15081086 - 27 Jul 2025
Viewed by 56
Abstract
Chronic high-fat diet (HFD) feeding in male rats causes significant metabolic as well as inflammatory disturbances, including obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, liver and kidney dysfunction, oxidative stress, and hypothalamic dysregulation. This study assessed the therapeutic effects of chlorogenic acid (CGA), a natural polyphenol, [...] Read more.
Chronic high-fat diet (HFD) feeding in male rats causes significant metabolic as well as inflammatory disturbances, including obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, liver and kidney dysfunction, oxidative stress, and hypothalamic dysregulation. This study assessed the therapeutic effects of chlorogenic acid (CGA), a natural polyphenol, administered at 10 mg and 100 mg/kg/day for the last 4 weeks of a 12-week HFD protocol. Both CGA doses reduced body weight gain, abdominal circumference, and visceral fat accumulation, with the higher dose showing greater efficacy. CGA improved metabolic parameters by lowering fasting glucose and insulin and enhancing lipid profiles. CGA suppressed orexigenic genes (Agrp, NPY) and upregulated anorexigenic genes (POMC, CARTPT), suggesting appetite regulation in the hypothalamus. In abdominal white adipose tissue (WAT), CGA boosted antioxidant defenses (SOD, CAT, GPx, HO-1), reduced lipid peroxidation (MDA), and suppressed pro-inflammatory cytokines including TNF-α, IFN-γ, and IL-1β, while increasing the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10. CGA modulated inflammatory signaling via upregulation of miR-146a and inhibition of IRAK1, TRAF6, and NF-κB. It also reduced apoptosis by downregulating p53, Bax, and Caspase-3, and restoring Bcl-2. These findings demonstrate that short-term CGA administration effectively reverses multiple HFD-induced impairments, highlighting its potential as an effective therapeutic for obesity-related metabolic disorders. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Activities of Phytochemicals)
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