s “The Future Magic Bullet”: A Review of Pharmacological Activities of Ethyl Pyruvate and its Derivatives

Pyruvic acid is an organic acid found in most biological systems as an end product of the metabolism of sugar or starch and its carboxalate anion is known as pyruvate. Pyruvate enters in the Krebs cycle to generate the ATP. It is an effective scavenger of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and OH-. It also inhibits tumor necrosis factor-a production, iNOS (inducible nitric oxide synthase), and IL-6 (interleukin-6) levels. Pyruvates have instability in solution, inorder to avoid this problem different analogs of pyruvate were developed. Treatment with ethyl pyruvate like pyruvate esters has been shown to be effective in a wide variety of preclinical models. In this review, reported pharmacological actions of pyruvate analogues like anti inflammatory, antioxidants, anticancer, neuroprotective etc are discussed.