Direct molecular targets of resveratrol: identifying key interactions to unlock complex mechanisms

To truly understand the mechanisms through which resveratrol exerts its biological effects, the key direct interactions between resveratrol and its target biomolecules must be identified. With an increasing number of biochemical tools to measure and quantify direct physical interactions between biomolecules, there have been around 20 proteins identified as having a specific affinity to resveratrol to date. Resveratrol has been described as a promiscuous molecule, and one would expect it to bind with numerous proteins, which would help explain why resveratrol appears to have so many health benefits and has been shown to act upon various different pathways related to a diverse range of conditions. The aim of this review is to present the direct protein targets of resveratrol that are currently known and highlight the consequences of direct binding and the methods used to identify the nature of these interactions.