Invasive Technology Department, Nantong First People's Hospital, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, #6 North Road Hai'er Xiang, Nantong, Jiangsu 226001, China.
Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Nantong University, #19 Qixiu Road, Nantong 226001, Jiangsu, China; Department of Neuroscience & Cell Biology, Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, 675 Hoes lane, Piscataway, 08854 New Jersey, United States.
Eur J Pharmacol. 2019 Jan 5;842:20-32. doi: 10.1016/j.ejphar.2018.10.006. Epub 2018 Oct 19.
Icariin is a major active component of the traditional herb Epimedium, also known as Horny Goat Weed. It has been extensively studied throughout the past several years and is known to exert anti-oxidative, anti-neuroinflammatory, and anti-apoptotic effects. It is now being considered as a potential therapeutic agent for a wide variety of disorders, ranging from neoplasm to cardiovascular disease. More recent studies have shown that icariin exhibits potential preventive and/or therapeutic effects in the nervous system. For example, icariin can prevent the production of amyloid β (1-42) and inhibit the expression of amyloid precursor protein (APP) and β-site APP cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE-1) in animal models of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Icariin has been shown to mitigate pro-inflammatory responses of microglia in culture and in animal models of cerebral ischemia, depression, Parkinson's disease (PD), and multiple sclerosis (MS). Icariin also prevents the neurotoxicity induced by hydrogen peroxide (HO), endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, ibotenic acid, and homocysteine. In addition, icariin is implicated in facilitating learning and memory in both normal aging animals and disease models. To date, we still have no consolidated source of knowledge about the pharmacological effects of icariin in the nervous system, though its roles in other tissues have been reviewed in recent years. Here, we summarize the pharmacological development of icariin as well as its possible mechanisms in prevention and/or therapy of disorders afflicting the nervous system in hope of expanding the knowledge about the preventive and/or therapeutic effect of icariin in brain disorders.
淫羊藿苷是传统草药淫羊藿（又称淫羊藿）的主要活性成分之一。在过去的几年中，对其进行了广泛的研究，已知其具有抗氧化、抗神经炎症和抗细胞凋亡作用。现在，淫羊藿苷被认为是治疗多种疾病的潜在治疗剂，从肿瘤到心血管疾病。最近的研究表明，淫羊藿苷在神经系统中具有潜在的预防和/或治疗作用。例如，淫羊藿苷可以预防淀粉样蛋白β（1-42）的产生，并抑制阿尔茨海默病（AD）动物模型中淀粉样前体蛋白（APP）和β位 APP 裂解酶 1（BACE-1）的表达。淫羊藿苷已被证明可以减轻培养物中小胶质细胞和脑缺血、抑郁、帕金森病（PD）和多发性硬化症（MS）动物模型中的促炎反应。淫羊藿苷还可以预防过氧化氢（HO）、内质网（ER）应激、异亮氨酸、同型半胱氨酸引起的神经毒性。此外，淫羊藿苷还可以促进正常衰老动物和疾病模型的学习和记忆。迄今为止，我们仍然没有关于淫羊藿苷在神经系统中药理作用的综合知识，尽管近年来已经综述了其在其他组织中的作用。在这里，我们总结了淫羊藿苷的药理学发展及其在预防和/或治疗神经系统疾病中的可能机制，希望能扩展淫羊藿苷在脑疾病中的预防和/或治疗作用的知识。
