Behavioral Improvements and its Molecular Mechanism of Ilex kudingcha C.J. Tseng on Animal Model of Alzheimer’s Disease

Lap Thi Nguyen (Hanoi University of Pharmacy, Hanoi)
Nguyen Huu Son (1) Hanoi University of Pharmacy, Hanoi 2) National Institute of Medcial Materials, Hanoi)
Tran Nguyen Hong (National Institute of Medicinal Materials, Hanoi)
Nguyen Minh Khoi (National Institute of Medicinal Materials, Hanoi)
Kinzo Matsumoto (Institute of Natural Medicine, University of Toyama, Japan)
William R. Folk (University of Missouri)
Masamitsu Yamaguchi (Kyoto Institute of Technology, Kyoto)
Pham Thi Nguyet Hang (National Institute of Medicinal Materials, Hanoi)

Majalah Obat Tradisional
Vol 25, No 3 (2020)

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a common chronic neurodegenerative disease with well-defined pathophysiological mechanisms. Ilex kudingcha (IK) C.J. Tseng is commonly known as bitter tea or “Khom” tea in Vietnam. The present study was conducted to investigate the anti-dementia effect of IK using olfactory bulbectomized (OBX) mice. OBX mice were daily treated with IK extract (540 mg/kg) or reference drug, tacrine (2.5 mg/kg) 1 week before and continuously for 3 days after the OBX surgery. The object recognition test, modified Y maze test and fear conditioning test were employed to analyze non-spatial short-term, spatial short-term and long-term memories of the mice respectively. Administration of IK extract and tacrine attenuated these OBX-induced cognitive deficits in mice. The effects of IK and tacrine on spatial short-term memory impairment were reversed by scopolamine, a muscarinic receptor antagonist. The amyloid-beta (Aβ) production in adult transgenic Drosophila brain flies was also investigated by using Western blotting with APP-HA antibody. These results indicated that IK extract improves short-term and long-term memory disturbances in OBX mice and that muscarinic receptor may play a role on these actions. In addition, our result also showed that IK extract reduces the expression of amyloid precursor protein (APP) in brain of AD model using Drosophila melanogaster.