Division of Biofunctional Evaluation, Research Center for Ethnomedicine, Institute of Natural Medicine, University of Toyama, Toyama 930-0194, Japan.
Phytother Res. 2010 Nov;24(11):1658-63. doi: 10.1002/ptr.3183.
Essential therapeutic drugs for Alzheimer's disease (AD) have not been developed. Since the neuritic atrophy leading to synaptic losses is one of the critical causes of memory impairment in AD, the effects of several constituents in tonic herbal medicines on neuritic atrophy and memory deficits have been studied. The present study investigated the effects of icariin, a main constituent in Epimedii Herba, a well known tonic crude drug, in an in vitro AD model and transgenic mouse AD model (5xFAD). Amyloid β(1-42)-induced atrophies of axons and dendrites were restored by post-treatment with icariin in rat cortical neurons. Administration of icariin for 8 days (p.o.) improved spatial memory impairment in 5xFAD mice. These novel findings suggest that icariin may improve memory dysfunction in AD and have a potential to extend neurites even when amyloid β-induced neurite atrophy has already occurred.
阿尔茨海默病（AD）的基本治疗药物尚未开发。由于导致突触丧失的神经纤维萎缩是 AD 记忆障碍的关键原因之一，因此研究了几种滋补草药成分对神经纤维萎缩和记忆缺陷的影响。本研究调查了淫羊藿素，一种著名的滋补性中药淫羊藿的主要成分，在体外 AD 模型和转基因 AD 模型（5xFAD）中的作用。淫羊藿素对大鼠皮质神经元中淀粉样β（1-42）诱导的轴突和树突萎缩有修复作用。淫羊藿素治疗 8 天（口服）可改善 5xFAD 小鼠的空间记忆障碍。这些新发现表明，淫羊藿素可能改善 AD 的记忆功能障碍，并且即使在淀粉样β诱导的神经纤维萎缩已经发生的情况下，也有可能延长神经纤维。
