Isobavachalcone ameliorates cognitive deficits, and Aβ and tau pathologies in triple-transgenic mice with Alzheimer's disease

Food Funct. 2021 Sep 7;12(17):7749-7761. doi: 10.1039/d1fo01306h. Epub 2021 Jul 16.

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects 50 million people worldwide. The current medicines have modest benefits in preventing or curing AD. Thus, it is urgent to discover drugs with the potential to change the progression of the disease. The primary clinical symptoms are memory loss and anxiety, while the critical pathological characteristics are Aβ plaques and hyperphosphorylated tau tangles. In this study, isobavachalcone (ISO), isolated from Psoralea corylifolia, was administered to 3×Tg-AD mice. It has been shown that this compound could significantly improve anxiety, memory and recognition deficits in the AD mice, attenuate the accumulation of Aβ oligomers, reduce the hyperphosphorylation of tau, and prevent the production of tau filaments. The metabolomic analysis implicates that the most probable pathways affected by ISO were bile secretion, tyrosine metabolism, and purine metabolism. In summary, ISO possesses the potential for further development as a drug candidate for AD.

MeSH terms

  • Alzheimer Disease / drug therapy*
  • Alzheimer Disease / genetics
  • Alzheimer Disease / metabolism
  • Alzheimer Disease / psychology
  • Amyloid beta-Peptides / genetics
  • Amyloid beta-Peptides / metabolism*
  • Animals
  • Chalcones / administration & dosage*
  • Cognition / drug effects
  • Cognitive Dysfunction / drug therapy*
  • Cognitive Dysfunction / genetics
  • Cognitive Dysfunction / metabolism
  • Cognitive Dysfunction / psychology
  • Drugs, Chinese Herbal / administration & dosage*
  • Humans
  • Memory Disorders / drug therapy
  • Memory Disorders / genetics
  • Memory Disorders / metabolism
  • Memory Disorders / psychology
  • Mice
  • Mice, Transgenic
  • Phosphorylation
  • Psoralea / chemistry*
  • tau Proteins / genetics
  • tau Proteins / metabolism*

Substances

  • Amyloid beta-Peptides
  • Chalcones
  • Drugs, Chinese Herbal
  • tau Proteins
  • isobavachalcone