Food for Brain Health

Exploring molecular mechanisms of aging and determinants of lifespan will help reduce age-related morbidity, thus facilitating healthy brain aging. Recently, it has been demonstrated that nutritional polyphenols, the main constituents of the Mediterranean diet, maintain redox balance and neuroprotection through the activation of hormetic vitagene pathway. Mitochondria play pivotal roles in the mechanisms of cellular aging and lifespan extension, although further studies are required concerning optimal bioenergetic mechanisms promoting aerobic energy production and the underlying detrimental effects of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by-production with the interplayed nutrition and caloric intake modulatory effects. Consistently, ROS acting as sensors of intracellular nutrients and energy state regulate functional mitochondrial state. Interestingly, increasing evidence reports a functional crosstalk between ROS production by mitochondria and longevity pathways modulating lifespan across species thus ensuring healthy aging. Nrf2-dependent pathways of cellular stress response with their target antioxidant vitagenes are emerging as powerful systems capable to preserve redox homeostasis under environmental and metabolic stresses. Vitagenes encode redox longevity genes induced by oxidative damage including heat shock family (Hsp) Hsp32, Hsp70, glutathione, thioredoxin and sirtuin protein systems. During aging process, a gradual decline of the heat shock response occurs and this may prevent repair of protein damage. Therefore, there is a growing interest by scientific community in developing of novel preventive andpharmacological agents capable of inducing stress responses at the minimum dose within the broad frame of hormesis as therapeutic strategy in patients suffering from chronic degenerative diseases. The specialattention of this paper is focusedonpotential neuroprotective mechanisms of nutrition, in particular dietary polyphenols involved in the activation of vitagenes resulting in improved intracellular antioxidant defense systems against ROS damage leading to degeneration and death with considerable impact on brain health and longevity processes.