Effect of Shengmai-san on cognitive performance and cerebral oxidative damage in BALB/c mice

Shengmai san-derived compound prescriptions: A review on chemical constituents, pharmacokinetic studies, quality control, and pharmacological properties

BACKGROUND

Shengmai San Formula (SMS), composed of Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma, Ophiopogon Radix and Schisandra chinensis Fructus, was a famous formula in Tradition Chinese Medicine (TCM). With the expansion of clinical applications, SMS was developed to different dosage forms, including Shengmai Yin Oral liquid (SMY), Shengmai Capsule (SMC), Shengmai Granule (SMG), Shengmai Injection (SMI) and Dengzhan Shengmai Capsule (DZSMC). These above SMS-derived compound prescriptions (SSCPs) play an important role in the clinical treatment. This review is aimed to providing a comprehensive perspective of SSCP.

METHODS

The relevant literatures were collected from classical TCM books and a variety of databases, including PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, Springer Link, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Wanfang Data.

RESULTS

The chemical constituents of SSCPs, arrived from the individual medicinal materials including Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma, Ophiopogon Radix, Schisandra chinensis Fructus, Erigerontis Herba, were firstly summarized respectively. Then the pharmacokinetics studies, quality control, and pharmacological properties of SSCPs were all reviewed. The active compounds, pharmacokinetics characterizes, quality control markers, the effects and mechanisms of pharmacology of the different dosage forms of SSCPs were summarized. Furthermore, the research deficiencies of SSCPs and an innovative research paradigm for Chinese materia medica (CMM) formula were proposed.

CONCLUSIONS

SMS, as a famous CMM formula, has great values in drug research and in clinical treatment especially for cardiocerebrovascular diseases. This article firstly make a comprehensive and systematic review on SMS.

cep-1 mediated the mitohormesis effect of Shengmai formula in regulating Caenorhabditis elegans lifespan

Ageing is one of the major causes of many diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, neurodegenerative disorders, and cancer. It has been found that mitochondrion acts as a crucial regulator of healthy lifespan. In this work, traditional Chinese medicine Shengmai formula (SMH) was used to treat mitochondrial mutants of Caenorhabditis elegans. The results showed that SMH shortened the lifespan of short-lived mev-1 mutant, but lengthened the lifespan of long-lived isp-1 mutant. Acute SMH treatment has benefit effect by increasing resistance capacity and motion activity in both ETC mutants and wild type N2. Compared with N2, the genome-wide transcriptome profile of ETC mutants showed on a similar pattern after SMH treatment. GO and KEGG enrichment analysis addressed that SMH-induced genes mainly enriched in metabolic process and oxidation-reduction process. The ROS levels in ETC mutants and N2 firstly rose then fell after SMH treatment, in company with the elevation of SOD-1, SOD-3 and GST-4, the increment of HSP-16.2 combined with heat shock. SMH increased oxygen consumption and ATP content, improved the restoration of mitochondrial homeostasis. SMH-induced opposed lifespan outcomes were markedly counteracted by cep-1 RNAi, together with the mitochondrial dynamics. Western blot assay also demonstrated a SMH-induced CEP-1 expression. Collectively, SMH acts as a prooxidant to regulate mitochondrial homeostasis and causes mitohormesis to exert therapeutic effect based on the redox background of the recipients, and cep-1 was required for the mitochondrial hormetic responses. The results shed a light on the rational clinical anti-ageing applications of SMH in the future.

Ameliorative Role of Nutraceuticals on Neurodegenerative Diseases Using the Drosophila melanogaster as a Discovery Model to Define Bioefficacy

Neurodegeneration is the destruction of neurons, and once the neurons degenerate they can't revive. This is one of the most concerned health conditions among aged population, more than ∼70% of the elderly people are suffering from neurodegeneration. Among all of the neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD) and Poly-glutamine disease (Poly-Q) are the major one and affecting most of the people around the world and posing excessive burden on the society. In order to understand this disease in non-human animal models it is pertinent to examine in model organism and various animal model are being used for such diseases like rat, mice and non-vertebrate model like Drosophila. Drosophila melanogaster is one of the best animal proven by several eminent scientist and had received several Nobel prizes for uncovering mechanism of human related genes and highly efficient model for studying neurodegenerative diseases due to its great affinity with human disease-related genes. Another factor is also employed to act as therapeutic or preventive method that is nutraceuticals. Nutraceuticals are functional natural compounds with antioxidant properties and had extensively showed the neuroprotective effect in different organisms. These nutraceuticals having antioxidant properties act through scavenging free radicals or by increasing endogenous cellular antioxidant defense molecules. For the best benefit, we are trying to utilize these nutraceuticals, which will have no or negligible side effects. In this review, we are dealing with various types of such nutraceuticals which have potent value in the prevention and curing of the diseases related to neurodegeneration.HighlightsNeurodegeneration is the silently progressing disease which shows its symptoms when it is well rooted.Many chemical drugs (almost all) have only symptomatic relief with side effects.Potent mechanism of neurodegeneration and improvement effect by nutraceuticals is proposed.Based on the Indian Cuisine scientists are trying to find the medicine from the food or food components having antioxidant properties.The best model to study the neurodegenerative diseases is Drosophila melanogaster.Many nutraceuticals having antioxidant properties have been studied and attenuated various diseases are discussed.

Energy, Entropy and Quantum Tunneling of Protons and Electrons in Brain Mitochondria: Relation to Mitochondrial Impairment in Aging-Related Human Brain Diseases and Therapeutic Measures

Adult human brains consume a disproportionate amount of energy substrates (2-3% of body weight; 20-25% of total glucose and oxygen). Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is a universal energy currency in brains and is produced by oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) using ATP synthase, a nano-rotor powered by the proton gradient generated from proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) in the multi-complex electron transport chain (ETC). ETC catalysis rates are reduced in brains from humans with neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs). Declines of ETC function in NDDs may result from combinations of nitrative stress (NS)-oxidative stress (OS) damage; mitochondrial and/or nuclear genomic mutations of ETC/OXPHOS genes; epigenetic modifications of ETC/OXPHOS genes; or defects in importation or assembly of ETC/OXPHOS proteins or complexes, respectively; or alterations in mitochondrial dynamics (fusion, fission, mitophagy). Substantial free energy is gained by direct O2-mediated oxidation of NADH. Traditional ETC mechanisms require separation between O2 and electrons flowing from NADH/FADH2 through the ETC. Quantum tunneling of electrons and much larger protons may facilitate this separation. Neuronal death may be viewed as a local increase in entropy requiring constant energy input to avoid. The ATP requirement of the brain may partially be used for avoidance of local entropy increase. Mitochondrial therapeutics seeks to correct deficiencies in ETC and OXPHOS.

Characterizing serum metabolic alterations of Alzheimer's disease and intervention of Shengmai-San by ultra-performance liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization quadruple time-of-flight mass spectrometry

Metabolomics approach describing the nervous protective mechanism of Shengmai-San (SMS) in Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Shengmai Formula suppressed over-activated Ras/MAPK pathway in C. elegans by opening mitochondrial permeability transition pore via regulating cyclophilin D

Since about 30% of all human cancers contain mutationally activated Ras, down regulating the over-activation of Ras/MAPK pathway represents a viable approach for treating cancers. Over-activation of Ras/MAPK pathway is accompanied by accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). One approach for developing anti-cancer drugs is to target ROS production and their accumulation. To test this idea, we have employed C. elegans of let-60 (gf) mutant, which contain over-activated let-60 (the homolog of mammalian ras) and exhibit tumor-like symptom of multivulva phenotype, to determine whether anti-oxidants can affect their tumor-like phenotype. Specifically we studied the effect of Shengmai formula (SM), a traditional Chinese medicine that has strong anti-oxidant activity, on the physiology of let-60 (gf) mutants. Unexpectedly, we found that SM treatment led to the opening of mitochondrial permeability transition pore by regulating cyclophilin D and then triggered oxidative stress and related signaling pathway activation, including p53, JNK, and p38/MAPK pathways. Finally, SM induced mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis and inhibited the tumor-like symptom of the multivulva phenotype of let-60(gf) mutants. Our results provide evidences to support that SM act as a pro-oxidant agent and could serve as a potential drug candidate for combating over-activated Ras-related cancer.

Nutraceuticals in Parkinson's Disease

Current pharmacological strategies for Parkinson’s disease (PD), the most common neurological movement disorder worldwide, are predominantly symptom relieving and are often plagued with undesirable side effects after prolonged treatment. Despite this, they remain as the mainstay treatment for PD due to the lack of better alternatives. Nutraceuticals are compounds derived from natural food sources that have certain therapeutic value and the advent of which has opened doors to the use of alternative strategies to tackle neurodegenerative diseases such as PD. Notably, nutraceuticals are able to position themselves as a “safer” strategy due to the fact that they are naturally derived compounds, therefore possibly having less side effects. Significant efforts have been put into better comprehending the role of nutraceuticals in PD, and we will look at some of them in this review. Broadly speaking, these compounds execute their positive effects via modulating signalling pathways, inhibiting oxidative stress, inflammation and apoptosis, as well as regulating mitochondrial homoeostasis. Importantly, we will highlight how a component of green tea, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), confers neuroprotection in PD via its ability to activate AMP kinase and articulate how its beneficial effects in PD are possibly due to enhancing mitochondrial quality control.

Shengmai Formula Ameliorates Pathological Characteristics in AD C. elegans

Shengmai (SM) formula, a classical traditional Chinese medicine formula, is composed of Panax ginseng (Pg), Ophiopogon japonicus (Oj), and Schisandra Chinesis (Sc). SM has been clinically used to treat heart failure and ischemic heart disease. Although SM formula has been reported to be potential for fighting against Alzheimer's disease (AD) by previous works, there are many gaps in our knowledge on its usage in AD treatment on an organism level and will then need to be further clarified. In this study, transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans expressing human Aβ_1-42 are used to evaluate SM formula efficacy to treat AD phenotype and to investigate its underlying mechanism. The results showed that SM formula ameliorated AD pathological characteristics of paralysis behavior and chemotaxis defect in transgenic C. elegans. With SM treatment, the number of Aβ deposits decreased, the levels of gene expressions of hsp16-2, hsp16-41, ace-1, ace-2, and TNFA1P1 homolog genes were down-regulated. Our results also showed that Oj exhibited more stronger effect on delaying paralysis in worms than Pg and Sc did, and synergistic action was observed between Pg and Oj, and Sc further enhanced the activity of Pg/Oj combination on delaying paralysis behavior. Further, SM with herbs of Pg, Oj, and Sc at a dose proportion of 9:9:6 exhibited superior therapeutic efficacy in comparison with herbs at other dose proportions. After SM formula extracted by ethanol, it delayed AD symptoms on a wider dose from 0.2 to 10.0 mg/mL with no toxic effect. These results provided more evidence for SM formula being potential to be used to treat AD.

Antioxidant Formulae, Shengmai San, and LingGuiZhuGanTang, Prevent MPTP Induced Brain Dysfunction and Oxidative Damage in Mice

The present study was designed to evaluate the preventive effect of antioxidative traditional oriental medicine formulae, Shengmai San (SMS) and LingGuiZhuGanTang (LGZGT), against 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) (i.p 30 mg·kg⁻¹ for 5 consecutive days) induced neurotoxicity. In in vitro antioxidant assays measured with Trolox and butyl hydroxyl toluene as reference antioxidant revealed that SMS has higher scavenging potential against hydroxyl radical than superoxide anion radical, but LGZGT was the reverse. The neuroprotective effect of SMS and LGZGT against MPTP was evaluated in mice by behavioral, biochemical, and immunohistochemical studies. In the behavioral study, both SMS and LGZGT significantly reversed the locomotive impairment induced by MPTP. Simultaneously, both formulae significantly prevented the MPTP induced dopaminergic neuron loss assessed by tyrosine hydroxylase in the midbrain. Both SMS and LGZGT significantly attenuated the elevated lipid peroxidation and protein carbonyls levels by MPTP. The DNA damage induced by MPTP was also prevented by both formulae. Although a little difference in the protective functions was observed between the two formulae, such as in DNA damage and behavioral studies, the results indicate that both SMS and LGZGT with antioxidant property act as a good candidate applicable for the antioxidant based complementary therapies of neurodegenerative diseases.

Cocktail of Four Active Components Derived from Sheng Mai San Inhibits Hydrogen Peroxide-Induced PC12 Cell Apoptosis Linked with the Caspase-3/ROCK1/MLC Pathway

SMXZF, a combination of four active components including ginsenoside Rb1, ginsenoside Rg1, schizandrin, and DT-13 (6:9:5:4) that is derived from Sheng Mai San, has previously been shown to exhibit a neuroprotective effect against focal ischemia/reperfusion injury. Due to the key role of oxidative stress-induced neuronal apoptosis in the pathogenesis of stroke, we examined the effect of SMXZF in oxidative stress responses and related signaling pathways in differentiated pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells. Our results showed that incubation with 100 μM hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) for 12 hr could reduce cell viability and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity with an increase of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and malondialdehyde (MDA). In contrast, SMXZF alleviated oxidative stress by reducing the over-production of ROS and MDA in parallel to concentration dependently increasing SOD activity. In addition, SMXZF significantly attenuated H2O2-induced caspase-3 cleavage, Rho-associated coiled-coil-containing protein kinase-1 (ROCK1) activation, and myosin light-chain (MLC) phosphorylation. Inhibiting either caspase-3 or ROCK1 mimicked the effect. Consequently, our results suggest that SMXZF inhibits H2O2-induced neuronal apoptosis linked with the caspase-3/ROCK1/MLC pathway, which has also been confirmed to be a positive feedback loop in oxidative stress-injured PC12 cells. These findings support the pharmacological potential of SMXZF for neurodegenerative diseases and stroke.

Ginseng in traditional herbal prescriptions

Panax ginseng Meyer has been widely used as a tonic in traditional Korean, Chinese, and Japanese herbal medicines and in Western herbal preparations for thousands of years. In the past, ginseng was very rare and was considered to have mysterious powers. Today, the efficacy of drugs must be tested through well-designed clinical trials or meta-analyses, and ginseng is no exception. In the present review, we discuss the functions of ginseng described in historical documents and describe how these functions are taken into account in herbal prescriptions. We also discuss the findings of experimental pharmacological research on the functions of ginseng in ginseng-containing prescriptions and how these prescriptions have been applied in modern therapeutic interventions. The present review on the functions of ginseng in traditional prescriptions helps to demystify ginseng and, as a result, may contribute to expanding the use of ginseng or ginseng-containing prescriptions.

Piracetam prevents scopolamine-induced memory impairment and decrease of NTPDase, 5'-nucleotidase and adenosine deaminase activities

Piracetam improves cognitive function in animals and in human beings, but its mechanism of action is still not completely known. In the present study, we investigated whether enzymes involved in extracellular adenine nucleotide metabolism, adenosine triphosphate diphosphohydrolase (NTPDase), 5'-nucleotidase and adenosine deaminase (ADA) are affected by piracetam in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex of animals subjected to scopolamine-induced memory impairment. Piracetam (0.02 μmol/5 μL, intracerebroventricular, 60 min pre-training) prevented memory impairment induced by scopolamine (1 mg/kg, intraperitoneal, immediately post-training) in the inhibitory avoidance learning and in the object recognition task. Scopolamine reduced the activity of NTPDase in hippocampus (53 % for ATP and 53 % for ADP hydrolysis) and cerebral cortex (28 % for ATP hydrolysis). Scopolamine also decreased the activity of 5'-nucleotidase (43 %) and ADA (91 %) in hippocampus. The same effect was observed in the cerebral cortex for 5'-nucleotidase (38 %) and ADA (68 %) activities. Piracetam fully prevented scopolamine-induced memory impairment and decrease of NTPDase, 5'-nucleotidase and adenosine deaminase activities in synaptosomes from cerebral cortex and hippocampus. In vitro experiments show that piracetam and scopolamine did not alter enzymatic activity in cerebral cortex synaptosomes. Moreover, piracetam prevented scopolamine-induced increase of TBARS levels in hippocampus and cerebral cortex. These results suggest that piracetam-induced improvement of memory is associated with protection against oxidative stress and maintenance of NTPDase, 5'-nucleotidase and ADA activities, and suggest the purinergic system as a putative target of piracetam.