School of Biological Sciences, College of Science, Nanyang Technological University, 60 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637551, Singapore.
J Proteomics. 2012 Apr 18;75(8):2468-79. doi: 10.1016/j.jprot.2012.02.029. Epub 2012 Mar 3.
Gastrodia elata (tianma) is a traditional Chinese herbal medicine (TCM) often used for the treatment of cerebrovascular diseases. In this study, we investigated the effects of tianma on the brain protein metabolism by quantitative proteomics to gain evidence for a direct relationship between tianma treatment and brain functions. One-year-old rats were treated with tianma (~2.5 g/kg/day) for 3months and the brain tissue proteome was analyzed by using the iTRAQ (isobaric tag for relative and absolute quantification) technology. According to our results, the long-term treatment with tianma could modulate the brain protein metabolism at the proteome level by down-regulating the expressions of various proteins, such as Gnao1 and Dctn2, which are related to neuronal growth cone control and synaptic activities. In addition, tianma treatment also induced the up-regulation of molecular chaperons and proteins related to the misfolded protein response, like Anxa5, and also other proteins involved in Huntington's disease (HD) (e.g. Pacsin1 and Arf3). Concluding, tianma could eventually contribute to activities related to synaptic plasticity and neuro-restorative processes and thus might be a novel candidate agent for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases by regulating the brain proteome.
天麻（Tianma）是一种传统的中草药（TCM），常用于治疗脑血管疾病。在这项研究中，我们通过定量蛋白质组学研究天麻对大脑蛋白质代谢的影响，以获得天麻治疗与大脑功能之间直接关系的证据。我们使用 iTRAQ（相对和绝对定量标记）技术分析了经过天麻（~2.5 g/kg/天）治疗 3 个月的 1 岁大鼠的脑组织蛋白质组。根据我们的结果，天麻的长期治疗可以通过下调与神经元生长锥控制和突触活动相关的各种蛋白质（如 Gnao1 和 Dctn2）的表达，在蛋白质组水平上调节大脑蛋白质代谢。此外，天麻处理还诱导分子伴侣和与错误折叠蛋白反应相关的蛋白质（如 Anxa5）以及其他涉及亨廷顿病（HD）的蛋白质（如 Pacsin1 和 Arf3）的上调。总之，天麻最终可能有助于与突触可塑性和神经修复过程相关的活动，因此通过调节大脑蛋白质组，天麻可能成为治疗神经退行性疾病的新候选药物。
