Neuroprotective Action Of Several Natural Compounds And Their Active Mechanism

Various reactive oxygen species (ROS) are generated from enzymatic and nonenzymatic processes during the normal metabolism in cells. If excessive ROS are not eliminated promptly, the accumulated ROS will induce cytotoxicity which plays important role in pathophysiology of many diseases. Brain tissue is susceptible to the damages by ROS because of its physiological and biochemical characteristics. It is well known that ROS is involved in the progressive loss of neurons in aging related neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease. Substantive aging accompanied diseases will emerge as a consequence of the "aging society" coming. So, the research in delaying aging and protection against aging related diseases has turned into a world wide hotspot. Antioxidants can terminate ROS chain reaction by disturbing initiation and propagation steps of the reaction and play important protective role in damage of neurons induced by ROS. In the present study, we screened the antioxidative effect of several natural compounds isolated from traditional Chinese herbs and then further investigated the neuroprotective effect and anti-cognitive dysfunction effect of compounds possessing potent antioxidative activity.1 Antioxidative activity assay of nine natural compounds in vitroWe investigated the antioxidative activity of 9 compounds (PL-3, SJ-2, BC-5, Gn-1, Gn-2, BC-18A, Vam-3, Vam-4 and FLZ) by several models in vitro. Lipid peroxidation (LPO) was induced by incubating rat microsomes with ROS...