Pathological pathway and protective mechanisms of phytobioactives used
in diabetic retinopathy: A review
Abstract
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is caused by either inadequate or dysfunctional
insulin. It is one leading causes of Diabetic retinopathy (DR). Many
synthetic medications have serious adverse effects that exacerbate the
diabetic patient’s condition. The discovery of phytochemicals from
medicinal plants offers a promising possibility for the creation of
novel therapies for diabetes and its complications including DR. This
review highlighted pathological mechanism of DR and also describe
numerous plant-derived small compounds (phytochemicals) that have been
studied in pre-clinical and clinical settings for their potential to
have retinal cytoprotective effects. This also emphasise the mechanism
retinal cryoprotection of phytochemicals. The sources were retrieved
from various database such as Science Direct, Google Scholar, PubMed,
Medline etc. In various studies, phytochemicals reduced inflammation,
apoptosis pathways and oxidative stress, which inhibited the development
of DR. Numerous phytochemicals, including flavonoids, lignan,
glycosides, phytoestrogen etc., inhibited the production of Reactive
Oxygen Species (ROS) and downregulation the inflammatory markers such as
Interleukin-6(IL-6), Interleukin-1β(IL-1β), and Tumor necrosis factor-α
(TNF-α). Overall most of the phytochemicals shows retinal cryoprotection
by reducing generation of free radicals and inflammatory mediators.