Jeong Ji Heun, Lee Seung Eun, Lee Jeong Hoon, Kim Hyung Don, Seo Kyung-Hae, Kim Dong Hwi, Han Seung Yun
Department of Anatomy, College of Medicine, Konyang University, Daejeon, Korea.
Department of Herbal Crop Research, National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science, Rural Development Administration, Eumseong, Korea.
Anat Cell Biol. 2020 Jun 30;53(2):216-227. doi: 10.5115/acb.20.011.
Dementia is the common neurodegenerative disorder affecting the elderly, with a progressive cognitive decline and memory loss. Since Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VD) share key pathologies including oxidative damage, oral supplement of phytochemical medicines, which are well-known for their antioxidant properties, can be a viable therapy for both types of dementia. In this study, the therapeutic potential of the extract (AAE), an oriental drug with multiple medicinal properties, was tested on experimental rat models of AD and VD. After confirming the in vitro attenuation of neuronal excitotoxicity by AAE, rats were orally administered with AAE for 7 days and subsequently tested under 2 different experimental paradigms: efficacy screening against #1 AD and #2 VD. For paradigm #1, the rats received intraperitoneal scopolamine and subsequently underwent 3 different behavior tests i.e., the Y-maze, novel object recognition, and passive avoidance tests. For paradigm #2, the rats were operated with the 2-vessel occlusion and hypovolemia (2VO/H) technique, and at postoperative day 7, their hippocampal neuronal viability and the neuroinflammatory changes were quantified. The results showed that the scopolamine-induced impairment of memory performance was significantly improved by AAE intake. Furthermore, while the 2VO/H operation induced marked hippocampal neuronal death and microglial activation, both these effects were significantly attenuated by AAE supplements. Some of the aforementioned effects of AAE intake were dose-dependent. These results provided evidence that AAE supplements can exert anti-AD and -VD efficacies and suggested that AAE might be used as an edible phytotherapeutic for the 2 major types of dementia.
痴呆症是影响老年人的常见神经退行性疾病，会导致进行性认知衰退和记忆丧失。由于阿尔茨海默病（AD）和血管性痴呆（VD）具有包括氧化损伤在内的关键病理特征，口服具有抗氧化特性的植物化学药物可能是这两种痴呆症的一种可行治疗方法。在本研究中，对具有多种药用特性的东方药物提取物（AAE）在AD和VD实验大鼠模型上的治疗潜力进行了测试。在确认AAE对神经元兴奋性毒性的体外减弱作用后，给大鼠口服AAE 7天，随后在两种不同的实验范式下进行测试：针对#1 AD和#2 VD的疗效筛选。对于范式#1，大鼠腹腔注射东莨菪碱，随后进行三种不同的行为测试，即Y迷宫、新物体识别和被动回避测试。对于范式#2，采用双血管闭塞和低血容量（2VO/H）技术对大鼠进行手术，在术后第7天，对其海马神经元活力和神经炎症变化进行量化。结果表明，摄入AAE可显著改善东莨菪碱诱导的记忆性能损害。此外，虽然2VO/H手术导致明显的海马神经元死亡和小胶质细胞激活，但AAE补充剂可显著减弱这两种作用。摄入AAE的上述一些作用具有剂量依赖性。这些结果提供了证据，表明AAE补充剂可发挥抗AD和抗VD的功效，并表明AAE可能用作这两种主要痴呆症的可食用植物疗法。
