Biomol Ther.  2020 Jan;28(1):74-82. 10.4062/biomolther.2019.024.

β-Amyrin Ameliorates Alzheimer’s Disease-Like Aberrant Synaptic Plasticity in the Mouse Hippocampus

• Park HJ
• Kwon H
• Lee JH
• Cho E
• Lee YC
• Moon M
• Jun M
• Kim DH
• Jung JW

• KMID: 2507808
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4062/biomolther.2019.024

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive and most frequently diagnosed neurodegenerative disorder. However, there is still no drug preventing the progress of this disorder. β-Amyrin, an ingredient of the surface wax of tomato fruit and dandelion coffee, is previously reported to ameliorate memory impairment induced by cholinergic dysfunction. Therefore, we tested whether β-amyrin can prevent AD-like pathology. β-Amyrin blocked amyloid β (Aβ)-induced long-term potentiation (LTP) impairment in the hippocampal slices. Moreover, β-amyrin improved Aβ-induced suppression of phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt signaling. LY294002, a PI3K inhibitor, blocked the effect of β-amyrin on Aβ-induced LTP impairment. In in vivo experiments, we observed that β-amyrin ameliorated object recognition memory deficit in Aβ-injected AD mice model. Moreover, neurogenesis impairments induced by Aβ was improved by β-amyrin treatment. Taken together, β-amyrin might be a good candidate of treatment or supplement for AD patients.

Keyword

β-amyrin; Amyloid β; Alzheimer’s disease; Synaptic plasticity