Table 1.
Summary of the main preclinical and clinical findings about the involvement of Zn2+ in several central nervous system disorders.
| Disorder | Serum/Plasma Zn2+ Status | Zn2+ Supplementation |
|---|---|---|
| Alzheimer’s disease (AD) | ↓ [54,55] | Delay memory deficits and reduce both β-amyloid (Aβ) and tau in 3xTg-AD mice [56] |
| No conclusive evidence [57] | ||
| Depression | ↓ [58] | Lower depressive symptom scores as an adjunct [59] |
| Improve depression status as a monotherapy [60] | ||
| Postpartum Zn2+ supplementation reduced the risk of postpartum depression [61] | ||
| Parkinson’s disease (PD) | ↓ [62,63,64] | Improve both lifespan and motor abilities in a drosophila model with a mutant Parkin [65] |
| Multiple sclerosis (MS) | ↓ [66,67] | Reduce clinical signs in animal models [68,69] |
| Schizophrenia (SCZ) | ↓ [70,71] | Effective as an adjuvant agent [72] |
| Effective as a therapeutic agent [73] | ||
| Prenatal Zn2+ supplementation attenuated the behavioral impairments [74] | ||
| Epilepsy | ↓ [75,76] ↑ [77] | A medium dose of Zn2+ reduced the severity of pilocarpine-induced limbic seizures either as a monotherapy or in combination with valproic acid in a rat model of epilepsy [78] |
| Reduce seizure frequency in children with refractory epilepsy [79] | ||
| Mitigate seizures by alleviating inflammation and oxidative stress [78,80] | ||
| Traumatic brain injury (TBI) | ↓ [81] | Effective in improving cognitive impairment and depression in animal models [82] |
| Reduce mortality rate in a double-blinded controlled trial [83] |