Department of Biochemistry, Falavarjan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran.
Department of Biochemistry, Falavarjan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran.
Brain Res. 2024 Sep 1;1838:148966. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2024.148966. Epub 2024 Apr 28.
Thymus vulgaris and Allium cepa are plants with great medicinal importance. Thymol monoterpene and quercetin, which are present in these plants, have anti-Alzheimer's and antioxidant effects. The objectives of this research were investigating the effects of these compounds on the pathogenesis and progress of Alzheimer's disease in cells modeled by formaldehyde. MTT, flow cytometry, and RT-PCR were used to investigate the toxicity, survival rate and apoptosis of the cells, and the expression level of PP2A, GSK3, NMDAR, BACE1, and APP genes, respectively. Also, the total antioxidant capacity of the modeled cells was measured. The results showed that the two compounds as well as the plants extract and essential oil were able to increase the percentage of cell survival; among them, Thymus vulgaris essential oil had the greatest effect (93.55316 % in 48 h exposure). In addition, quercetin was able to reduce the rate of apoptosis in Alzheimer's cells (4.73 %) which was greater than the effects of other compounds. In general, the essential oil of Thymus vulgaris compared to thymol; and quercetin compared to Allium cepa extract showed more improving effects on the expression of genes involved in the disease. All four compounds increased the antioxidant capacity of the modeled cells compared to the control group, and these effects were almost equal between the compounds. According to the obtained results, both plants, especially Thymus vulgaris can be proposed as candidates to be included in the diet of Alzheimer's patients. In addition, polyphenols thymol and quercetin as derivates from the studied plants can be used in new drugs development for Alzheimer's disease, with greater safety than currently used drugs. These results are significant because most of the drug for Alzheimer's treatments such as cholinesterases (e.g. rivastigmine and donepezil) and memantine are chemically based and have many side effects.
普通大蒜和洋葱都是具有重要药用价值的植物。这些植物中存在的麝香草酚单萜和槲皮素具有抗老年痴呆症和抗氧化作用。本研究的目的是研究这些化合物对甲醛模型细胞中老年痴呆症发病机制和进展的影响。MTT、流式细胞术和 RT-PCR 分别用于研究化合物对细胞毒性、存活率和细胞凋亡的影响，以及 PP2A、GSK3、NMDAR、BACE1 和 APP 基因的表达水平，同时还测量了模型细胞的总抗氧化能力。结果表明，这两种化合物以及植物提取物和精油都能够提高细胞存活率的百分比；其中，普通大蒜精油的效果最大（暴露 48 小时后为 93.55316%）。此外，槲皮素能够降低老年痴呆症细胞的凋亡率（4.73%），效果优于其他化合物。总的来说，与麝香草酚相比，普通大蒜精油；与洋葱提取物相比，槲皮素对参与疾病的基因表达有更好的改善作用。与对照组相比，这四种化合物都增加了模型细胞的抗氧化能力，而且这些化合物之间的效果几乎相同。根据研究结果，这两种植物，特别是普通大蒜，可被提议作为老年痴呆症患者饮食的候选物。此外，作为研究植物的衍生物，多酚麝香草酚和槲皮素可用于开发治疗老年痴呆症的新药，比目前使用的药物更安全。这些结果意义重大，因为大多数治疗老年痴呆症的药物，如乙酰胆碱酯酶抑制剂（如利斯的明和多奈哌齐）和美金刚，都是基于化学物质，有许多副作用。
