Protective Effects of Wogonin against Alzheimer's Disease by Inhibition of Amyloidogenic Pathway.

One of the pathogenic systems of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the formation of -amyloid plaques in the brains of patients, and amyloidogenic activity becomes one of the therapeutic targets. Here, we report wogonin, one of the major active constituting components in , which has the neuroprotective effects on amyloid- peptides- (A-) induced toxicity. Oral wogonin treatment improved the performance of triple transgenic AD mice (h-APPswe, h-Tau P301L, and h-PS1 M146V) on the Morris water maze, Y-maze, and novel object recognition. Furthermore, wogonin activated the neurite outgrowth of AD cells by increasing neurite length and complexity of Tet-On A-GFP SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells (AD cells) and attenuated amyloidogenic pathway by decreasing the levels of -secretase, APP -C-terminal fragment, A-aggregation, and phosphorylated Tau. Wogonin also increased mitochondrial membrane potential (∆m) and protected against apoptosis by reducing the expression of Bax and cleaved PARP. Collectively, these results conclude that wogonin may be a promising multifunctional drug candidate for AD.