Korean Medicine (KM)-Application Center, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daegu 41062, Korea.
Nutrients. 2020 Jul 7;12(7):2019. doi: 10.3390/nu12072019.
Banhasasim-tang (BHS) is an herbal medicine that has been widely used in East Asia to treat various symptoms associated with upper abdomen swelling. BHS has not been studied previously for neuroinflammation or cognitive disorder. Here, we use a lipopolysaccharide (LPS) model to investigate the effects and mechanisms of BHS in neuroinflammation and cognitive impairment of mice. We used a mouse model of LPS-induced cognitive impairment and neuroinflammation and examined whether administration of BHS prevents these deficits via Morris water maze test, passive avoidance test, histopathological analysis, Western blotting, and real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). We found via behavioral tests that BHS treatment effectively prevented LPS-induced memory loss and neuronal damage in mice. Histopathological analysis of mouse brains revealed that BHS inhibited LPS-induced expression of microglial and astrocyte activation markers. Furthermore, BHS inhibits the production of markers related to neurodegeneration, amyloidogenesis, and inflammation, and mRNA expression of inflammatory mediators in mouse brain tissue. Additionally, BHS pretreatment effectively inhibited generation of inflammatory factors and pathways in BV2 microglial cells stimulated by LPS. These observations indicate that BHS is effective in preventing cognitive impairment caused by neuroinflammation and has strong potential as a candidate treatment for neuronal inflammatory diseases.
半夏汤(BHS)是一种草药,在东亚被广泛用于治疗与上腹部肿胀相关的各种症状。以前没有研究过 BHS 对神经炎症或认知障碍的作用。在这里,我们使用脂多糖(LPS)模型来研究 BHS 对小鼠神经炎症和认知障碍的影响及其机制。我们使用 LPS 诱导的认知障碍和神经炎症的小鼠模型,通过 Morris 水迷宫测试、被动回避测试、组织病理学分析、Western blot 和实时逆转录聚合酶链反应(RT-qPCR)来检查 BHS 是否能预防这些缺陷。通过行为测试,我们发现 BHS 治疗能有效预防 LPS 诱导的小鼠记忆丧失和神经元损伤。对小鼠脑组织的组织病理学分析表明,BHS 抑制了 LPS 诱导的小胶质细胞和星形胶质细胞激活标志物的表达。此外,BHS 抑制了与神经退行性变、淀粉样变性和炎症相关的标志物以及小鼠脑组织中炎症介质的 mRNA 表达。此外,BHS 预处理能有效抑制 LPS 刺激的 BV2 小胶质细胞中炎症因子和通路的产生。这些观察结果表明,BHS 能有效预防神经炎症引起的认知障碍,是治疗神经元炎症性疾病的候选药物。