Abstract
BackgroundHuperzine A is a Chinese herb extract used for Alzheimer’s disease. We conducted this review to evaluate the beneficial and harmful effect of Huperzine A for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.MethodsWe searched for randomized clinical trials (RCTs) of Huperzine A for Alzheimer’s disease in PubMed, Cochrane Library, and four major Chinese electronic databases from their inception to June 2013. We performed meta-analyses using RevMan 5.1 software. (Protocol ID: CRD42012003249)Results20 RCTs including 1823 participants were included. The methodological quality of most included trials had a high risk of bias. Compared with placebo, Huperzine A showed a significant beneficial effect on the improvement of cognitive function as measured by Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) at 8 weeks, 12 weeks and 16 weeks, and by Hastgawa Dementia Scale (HDS) and Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS) at 8 weeks and 12 weeks. Activities of daily living favored Huperzine A as measured by Activities of Daily Living Scale (ADL) at 6 weeks, 12 weeks and 16 weeks. One trial found Huperzine A improved global clinical assessment as measured by Clinical Dementia Rating Scale (CDR). One trial demonstrated no significant change in cognitive function as measured by Alzheimer’s disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale (ADAS-Cog) and activity of daily living as measured by Alzheimer’s disease Cooperative Study Activities of Daily Living Inventory (ADCS-ADL) in Huperzine A group. Trials comparing Huperzine A with no treatment, psychotherapy and conventional medicine demonstrated similar findings. No trial evaluated quality of life. No trial reported severe adverse events of Huperzine A.ConclusionsHuperzine A appears to have beneficial effects on improvement of cognitive function, daily living activity, and global clinical assessment in participants with Alzheimer’s disease. However, the findings should be interpreted with caution due to the poor methodological quality of the included trials.
Highlights
Alzheimer’s disease (AD), first described by German psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer in 1906, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by cognitive deterioration together with behavioral disturbances and declining activities of daily living [1]
We summarized data using risk ratios (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for binary outcomes or mean difference (MD) with 95% CI for continuous outcomes
All randomized clinical trials (RCTs) were conducted in China, except one which was conducted in the United States [16], and all were published in full: 18 trials [18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35] were published in Chinese and two were published in English [16,17]
Summary
Alzheimer’s disease (AD), first described by German psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer in 1906, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by cognitive deterioration together with behavioral disturbances and declining activities of daily living [1]. It is the leading cause of dementia, resulting in nearly 70% of dementia worldwide by 2005 [2]. Memantine appears to work by regulate the activity of a different chemical messenger in the brain These drugs have some common side effects including nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite and increased frequency of bowel movements, and tacrine is rarely prescribed today because of possible liver damage [5]. We conducted this review to evaluate the beneficial and harmful effect of Huperzine A for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease
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