A Maitake () polysaccharide ameliorates Alzheimer's disease-like pathology and cognitive impairments by enhancing microglial amyloid-β clearance.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by the deposition of amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques, neuronal loss and neurofibrillary tangles. In addition, neuroinflammatory processes are thought to contribute to AD pathophysiology. Maitake (), an edible/medicinal mushroom, exhibits high nutritional value and contains a great amount of health-beneficial, bioactive compounds. It has been reported that proteo-β-glucan, a polysaccharide derived from Maitake (PGM), possesses strong immunomodulatory activities. However, whether PGM is responsible for the immunomodulatory and neuroprotection effects on APP/PS1 (APP/PS1) transgenic mice, a widely used animal model of AD, remains unclear. In the present study, the results demonstrated that PGM could improve learning and memory impairment, attenuate neuron loss and histopathological abnormalities in APP/PS1 mice. In addition, PGM treatment could activate microglia and astrocytes and promote microglial recruitment to the Aβ plaques. Also, PGM could enhance Aβ phagocytosis, and thereby alleviate Aβ burden and the pathological changes in the cortex and hippocampus in APP/PS1 mice. Moreover, PGM showed no significant effect on mice body weight. In conclusion, these findings indicated that administration of PGM could improve memory impairment immunomodulatory action, and dietary supplementation with PGM may provide potential benefits on brain aging related memory dysfunction.