Wu Jun, Jeong Hye Kyoung, Bulin Sarah Elizabeth, Kwon Sung Won, Park Jeong Hill, Bezprozvanny Ilya
Department of Physiology, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, Texas 75390, USA.
J Neurosci Res. 2009 Jun;87(8):1904-12. doi: 10.1002/jnr.22017.
Ginseng, the root of Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer (Araliaceae), is a widely used herbal medicine. Ginsenosides, the active ingredients of ginseng, are the main components responsible for many beneficial actions of ginseng. In the present study, we tested 10 different ginsenosides in the previously developed in vitro Huntington's disease (HD) assay with primary medium spiny striatal neuronal cultures (MSN) from the YAC128 HD mouse model. We found that nanomolar concentrations of ginsenoside Rb1 and Rc effectively protected YAC128 medium spiny neurons from glutamate-induced apoptosis and that Rg5 was protective at micromolar concentration. The other seven ginsenosides tested were not effective or exerted toxic effects in MSN cultures. From further experiments, we suggested that neuroprotective effects of ginsenosides Rb1, Rc, and Rg5 could correlate with their ability to inhibit glutamate-induced Ca(2+) responses in cultured MSN. From these results we concluded that ginsenosides Rb1, Rc, and Rg5 offer a potential therapeutic choice for the treatment of HD and possibly other neurodegenerative disorders.
人参,五加科人参(Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer)的根,是一种广泛使用的草药。人参皂苷作为人参的活性成分,是许多人参有益作用的主要成分。在本研究中,我们使用来自YAC128亨廷顿舞蹈病(HD)小鼠模型的原代中型多棘纹状体神经元培养物(MSN),在先前开发的体外HD测定中测试了10种不同的人参皂苷。我们发现纳摩尔浓度的人参皂苷Rb1和Rc有效地保护YAC128中型多棘神经元免受谷氨酸诱导的凋亡,并且Rg5在微摩尔浓度下具有保护作用。测试的其他七种人参皂苷在MSN培养物中无效或产生毒性作用。通过进一步的实验,我们表明人参皂苷Rb1、Rc和Rg5的神经保护作用可能与其抑制培养的MSN中谷氨酸诱导的Ca(2+)反应的能力相关。从这些结果我们得出结论,人参皂苷Rb1、Rc和Rg5为HD以及可能的其他神经退行性疾病的治疗提供了一种潜在的治疗选择。