Department of Nephrology, The Third People's Hospital of Chengdu, Chengdu, 610031, China.
Department of Pharmacy, Sichuan Academy of Medical Science & Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 610072, China.
Sci Rep. 2018 Jan 8;8(1):26. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-18058-7.
Excessive accumulation of β-amyloid (Aβ) is thought to be a major causative factor in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Pretreating Aβ-induced neurotoxicity is a potential therapeutic approach to ameliorate the progression and development of AD. The present study aimed to investigate the neuroprotective effect of shikonin, a naphthoquinone pigment isolated from the roots of the traditional Chinese herb Lithospermum erythrorhizon, on Aβ-treated neurotoxicity in PC12 cells. Pretreating cells with shikonin strongly improved cell viability, decreased the malondialdehyde and reactive oxygen species (ROS) content, and stabilized the mitochondrial membrane potential in Aβ-induced PC12 cells. In addition, shikonin strongly improved the response of the antioxidant system to ROS by increasing the levels of superoxidedismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase. Furthermore, shikonin has the ability to reduce proapoptotic signaling by reducing the activity of caspase-3 and moderating the ratio of Bcl-2/Bax. These observations indicate that shikonin holds great potential for neuroprotection via inhibition of oxidative stress and cell apoptosis.
β-淀粉样蛋白（Aβ）的过度积累被认为是阿尔茨海默病（AD）发病机制的主要致病因素。预处理 Aβ 诱导的神经毒性是改善 AD 进展和发展的一种潜在治疗方法。本研究旨在探讨紫草素（一种从传统中药紫草根中分离得到的萘醌色素）对 Aβ 处理的 PC12 细胞神经毒性的神经保护作用。用紫草素预处理细胞可显著提高细胞活力，降低丙二醛和活性氧（ROS）含量，并稳定 Aβ 诱导的 PC12 细胞中线粒体膜电位。此外，紫草素通过增加超氧化物歧化酶、过氧化氢酶和谷胱甘肽过氧化物酶的水平，增强了抗氧化系统对 ROS 的反应能力。此外，紫草素还具有通过降低半胱天冬酶-3 的活性和调节 Bcl-2/Bax 比值来减轻细胞凋亡的能力。这些观察结果表明，紫草素通过抑制氧化应激和细胞凋亡具有很大的神经保护潜力。
