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Cerebralcare Granule®, a Chinese Herb Compound Preparation, Attenuates d-Galactose Induced Memory Impairment in Mice

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Abstract

Cerebralcare granule® (CG) is a preparation of Traditional Chinese Medicine that widely used in China. It was approved by the China State Food and Drug Administration for treatment of headache and dizziness associated with cerebrovascular diseases. In the present study, we aimed to investigate whether CG had protective effect against d-galactose (gal)-induced memory impairment and to explore the mechanism of its action. d-gal was administered (100 mg/kg, subcutaneously) once daily for 8 weeks to induced memory deficit and neurotoxicity in the brain of aging mouse and CG (7.5, 15, and 30 g/kg) were simultaneously administered orally. The present study demonstrates that CG can alleviate aging in the mouse brain induced by d-gal through improving behavioral performance and reducing brain cell damage in the hippocampus. CG prevents aging mainly via suppression of oxidative stress response, such as decreasing NO and MDA levels, renewing activities of SOD, CAT, and GPx, as well as decreasing AChE activity in the brain of d-gal-treated mice. In addition, CG prevents aging through inhibiting NF-κB-mediated inflammatory response and caspase-3-medicated neurodegeneration in the brain of d-gal treated mice. Taken together, these data clearly demonstrates that subcutaneous injection of d-gal produced memory deficit, meanwhile CG can protect neuron from d-gal insults and improve memory ability.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, China (Grant No. 2014M562675).

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Correspondence to Wenyuan Gao.

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Qu, Z., Yang, H., Zhang, J. et al. Cerebralcare Granule®, a Chinese Herb Compound Preparation, Attenuates d-Galactose Induced Memory Impairment in Mice. Neurochem Res 41, 2199–2214 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-016-1934-9

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