Abstract
In the recent years, interest in soybean as a neuroprotective nutrient in the management of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has increased and soy isoflavones (SI), as kinds of soybean phytochemicals, are thought to be biologically active components that confer this beneficial effect against neurodegenerative diseases. However, the neuroprotective effect of SI is not well understood. Therefore, the present study (30 days) was conducted to investigate the neuroprotective effects of soy isoflavones (SI) on scopolamine (SCOP)-induced memory impairments in Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) mice (aged 4 weeks) and to elucidate its underlying mechanisms of action. SI (40 mg/kg) administration improved the cognitive performance of SCOP-treated mice in an object location recognition task and the Morris water maze test. SI (40 mg/kg) administration significantly enhanced cholinergic system function and suppressed oxidative stress levels in the hippocampus of SCOP-treated mice. Furthermore, SI (40 mg/kg) treatment markedly upregulated the phosphorylation levels of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression levels in the hippocampus. Taken together, these results demonstrated that soy isoflavones exerted a significant neuroprotective effect on cognitive dysfunctions induced by scopolamine, suggesting that soy isoflavones could be a good candidate for possible treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
Highlights
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a central neurodegenerative disease that is prominently age-dependent; the proportion of AD patients is gradually increasing as society ages around the world [1]
The paired sample T-tests showed that there was no differences in the exploration time for the object A1 and the object A2 comparing between groups (Figure 2A), and analysis of the performance demonstrated that no clear differences were found between treatment conditions in the level of exploration (Figure 2B)
Treatment. mice (p
Summary
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a central neurodegenerative disease that is prominently age-dependent; the proportion of AD patients is gradually increasing as society ages around the world [1]. According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report in 2015, AD affects approximately. Drugs used for the treatment of AD mainly contain four acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (tacrine, rivastigmine, galantamine, and donepezil) and one N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor agonist (memantine) [5]. These drugs have several adverse effects due to non-selectively action on a variety of Nutrients 2018, 10, 853; doi:10.3390/nu10070853 www.mdpi.com/journal/nutrients. Nutrients 2018, 10, 853 organ tissues, both centrally and peripherally [6]. It is necessary to explore complementary and alternative treatments for AD which have more effective strategy with fewer adverse effects
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