Food-Derived Natural Products Prevent Neurodegenerative Diseases by Regulating Mitophagy: A Review of Research Progress

Neurodegenerative diseases are often characterized by progressive dysfunction and loss of neuronal structure and function, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease. Mitochondria, the center of energy metabolism in the body, are often damaged and accumulated in neurodegenerative diseases. As an efficient way of removing these damaged mitochondria, mitophagy usually shows an abnormal state in the development of these diseases, which aggravates the cognitive and motor dysfunction of the body, and finally speeds up the process of related diseases. In recent years, it has been found that food-derived natural products, such as quercetin, curcumin, resveratrol and silymarin, play significant roles in regulating mitophagy to improve neurodegenerative diseases, which have unique advantages, such as lower toxicity than chemical synthetic drugs and cost-effectiveness. Here, we summarize recent studies on the regulation of mitophagy by food-derived natural products to slow down neurodegenerative disorders in order to provide new ideas for researchers to develop and utilize food-derived natural products.