Tier 4 — mechanistic

Fisetin and Its Role in Chronic Diseases

Pal HC, Pearlman RL, Afaq F
Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology 2016 928:213-244

Bibliography

PubMed
PMID 27671819
DOI
10.1007/978-3-319-41334-1_10
Funding
Chapter preparation supported in part by NIH funding to the senior author's laboratory (article type includes 'Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural' per PubMed indexing); specific grant numbers not stated in the reviewed sections.
Competing interests
Not stated in the reviewed sections.

Study snapshot

DesignNarrative literature review (book chapter) summarising fisetin's chemistry, mechanisms of action (PI3K/AKT/mTOR, NF-kB, MAPK, Wnt/beta-catenin) and preclinical evidence across neurological disease, diabetes, obesity, atherosclerosis, cancer and other inflammatory conditions, drawing on approximately 130 cited primary studies.
ModelNot applicable — literature synthesis, not an original experimental study.
SampleNot applicable.
InterventionNot applicable — review of fisetin's preclinical pharmacology across multiple disease models cited in the literature.
DurationNot applicable.
EndpointsNot applicable — narrative synthesis of endpoints reported across cited primary studies (inflammatory cytokines, oxidative stress markers, signalling pathway activity, tumour growth, cognitive/behavioural outcomes).

What the study showed, in plain terms

This book chapter, written by dermatology researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, pulls together the preclinical evidence on fisetin's anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-tumorigenic effects across a wide range of chronic diseases.

It covers fisetin's basic chemistry and mechanisms, then works through neurological disease, diabetes, obesity, atherosclerosis, cancer, and allergic/inflammatory conditions, citing the animal and cell-culture literature available up to 2016.

Bottom line: this is a review, not new data — it is useful as an early, comprehensive map of fisetin's mechanisms across disease categories, but every specific claim in it should be traced back to (and evaluated against) its own primary source.

Key findings

The chapter synthesises preclinical evidence that fisetin modulates PI3K/AKT/mTOR, NF-kB, MAPK and Wnt/beta-catenin signalling to produce anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-diabetic, neuroprotective, cardioprotective and anti-tumorigenic effects across cell-culture and animal models spanning neurological disease, diabetes, obesity, atherosclerosis and cancer, with consistently low reported toxicity across the cited animal studies.

What this study can and cannot tell us

This is a 2016 narrative review/book chapter rather than primary experimental data. It reflects the literature available at the time of writing, and most of the underlying fisetin evidence it discusses is preclinical. Individual disease claims therefore depend on the quality and relevance of the cited primary studies and should not be treated as direct clinical evidence.

Citation network

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Editorial review

Reviewed by the Biohack Blueprint research team

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Dr. Khaled Mahmoud, MBBChCritical Care Medicine, Longevity Science & Editorial Direction Dr. Abdulla Mostafa, PhDCellular Senescence, Neurological, Mitochondrial & Brain-Ageing Biology Dr. Amr Yasser, PhDCardiometabolic, Musculoskeletal, Gut & Bioavailability