Fisetin Protects against Cancer and Alzheimer's

The Salk team fed the 3-month-old prematurely aging mice a daily dose of fisetin with their food for 7 months. Another group of the prematurely aging mice was fed the same food without fisetin. During the study period, mice took various activity and memory tests. The team also examined levels of specific proteins in the mice related to brain function, responses to stress and inflammation.
“At 10 months, the differences between these two groups were striking,” says Maher. Mice not treated with fisetin had difficulties with all the cognitive tests as well as elevated markers of stress and inflammation. Brain cells called astrocytes and microglia, which are normally anti-inflammatory, were now driving rampant inflammation. Mice treated with fisetin, on the other hand, were not noticeably different in behavior, cognitive ability or inflammatory markers at 10 months than a group of untreated 3-month-old mice with the same condition. Additionally, the team found no evidence of acute toxicity in the fisetin-treated mice, even at high doses of the compound.

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Fisetin has been reported as a chemopreventive/chemotherapeutic agent in several types of cancer and also as a neuroprotective agent. Several studies indicate that fisetin is a promising novel antioxidant. In this review article, we discuss the current information available in the literature on the multiple effects of fisetin, both in cell lines and in vivo models.

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