Polydatin for treating spinal cord injury: Multiple mechanisms and challenges

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a serious neurological system disease. After SCI, a series of cascade reactions can cause irreversible damage, with a high disability rate and mortality rate. The complexity of the pathological mechanism of SCI limits the efficacy of various traditional therapies, and it is urgent to find new therapeutic means. In recent years, the method of extracting effective components from natural Chinese herbs for treating diseases has attracted widespread attention. Polydatin (PD) is an active ingredient extracted from Polygonum cuspidatum and its structure is similar to the traditional drug resveratrol. Sufficient studies have proved that PD plays anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-apoptotic and neuroprotective roles in the treatment of multisystem diseases. These effects are also significant in the treatment of SCI. Based on the structural differences between PD and resveratrol, this paper illustrates the feasibility of PD in the treatment of SCI, and systematically expounds the pathophysiological process of SCI and the molecular mechanism of PD in the treatment of SCI. Furthermore, this article discusses feasible measures to improve the bioavailability of PD, summarizes the application of new drug delivery systems in PD, and analyzes the challenges and prospects of PD in SCI treatment.