Abstract
Bacopa monnieri is a plant used as a nootropic in Ayurveda, a 5000-year-old system of traditional Indian medicine. Although both animal and clinical studies supported its role as a memory enhancer, the molecular and cellular mechanism underlying Bacopa’s nootropic action are not understood. In this study, we used deep sequencing (RNA-Seq) to identify the transcriptome changes upon Bacopa treatment on SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells. We identified several genes whose expression levels were regulated by Bacopa. Biostatistical analysis of the RNA-Seq data identified biological pathways and molecular functions that were regulated by Bacopa, including regulation of mRNA translation and transmembrane transport, responses to oxidative stress and protein misfolding. Pathway analysis using the Ingenuity platform suggested that Bacopa may protect against brain damage and improve brain development. These newly identified molecular and cellular determinants may contribute to the nootropic action of Bacopa and open up a new direction of investigation into its mechanism of action.
Highlights
Bacopa monnieri (Bacopa), known as Bacopa monniera, Herpestis monniera, water hyssop or Brahmi, has long been used in Indian traditional medicine (Ayurveda) as a brain tonic to enhance memory performance, learning and concentration [1, 2]
SH-SY5Y cells were differentiated by plating them on laminin-coated coverslips, using a protocol optimized by Dwane et al [30], which consisted of removing fetal bovine serum (FBS) and adding 50 nM Insulin Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1)
In order to obtain a better visualization of the individual cells, we transfected the cultures with a cDNA encoding Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) and used fluorescence microscopy to document the differentiation (Fig 1D and 1E)
Summary
Bacopa monnieri (Bacopa), known as Bacopa monniera, Herpestis monniera, water hyssop or Brahmi, has long been used in Indian traditional medicine (Ayurveda) as a brain tonic to enhance memory performance, learning and concentration [1, 2]. These traditional claims have recently been supported by several animal and clinical studies. Clinical studies and a meta-analysis of randomized control trials demonstrated that chronic oral administration of Bacopa (over a period of more than 12 weeks) to healthy subjects resulted in improvements in the subjects’ information processing speed, free recall, verbal memory and learning.
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