[Search of Neurotrophin-mimic Natural Products for Prevention and Treatment of Neurodegenerative Disease].

As part of our continuing studies on neurotrophin-mimic active compounds in natural products, we investigated the chemical constituents of the pericarps of Illicium jiadifengpi and the roots of Indonesian ginger Zingiber purpureum, resulting in the isolation of new seco-prezizaane-type sesquiterpenoid 1 and phenylbutenoid dimer 3-4 and two new curcuminoids 5-6. The MeOH extract of I. jiadifengpi was fractionated, leading to the isolation of compound 1. Compound 1 significantly enhanced neurite outgrowth in primary cell cultures of fetal rat cortical neurons. It is noteworthy that compound 1 has potential significantly to promote differentiation of multipotent neural stem cell line (MEB5 cells) into neurons. Additionally, we investigated the MeOH extract of the root of Bangle (Z. purpureum) that exhibited neuritogenesis activity in PC12 cells at 25 μg/mL, resulting in the isolation of neurotrophic phenylbutenoid dimers 3-4 and new compounds 5-6. Compounds 3 and 4 were found not only significantly to induce neurite sprouting of PC12 cells but also to increase the neurite length and number of neurites in primary cultured rat cortical neurons, and also showed protective activity against cell death caused by deprivation of serum. Furthermore, chronic treatment with these compounds enhanced hippocampal neurogenesis in dementia model olfactory bulbectomized (OBX) mice. Compounds 5 and 6 had significant NGF-potentiating effects on PC12 cells whereas compound 5 enhanced prevention of amyloid β (Aβ) 42 aggregation.