Chen Hailong

Are Herbal Compounds the Next Frontier for Alleviating Learning and Memory Impairments? An Integrative Look at Memory, Dementia and the Promising Therapeutics of Traditional Chinese Medicines

Recent advances in neuroscience have revealed a greater, in‐depth understanding of the complexities associated with memory. Contemporary theories hold that an integral relationship between memory formation, stabilization and consolidation revolve around plasticity of neuronal networks. The associated requisite receptors α‐amino‐3‐hydroxy‐5‐methyl‐4‐isoxazole propionic acid (AMPA) and N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate (NMDA) and cellular mechanisms surrounding plasticity (posed to incite molecular functionality), also display strong correlations in the pathogenesis of dementias. When the brain is in a diseased state as a result of malignant neurotransmission (i.e. in Alzheimers disease; AD), the homeostatic balance required for normal neuronal processes is disrupted, which leads to degeneration of neural circuitry. Present efforts to find new treatments aimed at reversing or halting neurodegeneration are immense, with increasing attention being placed on investigating various herbal medicines. A wide variety of herbal plants (i.e. Panax ginseng, Polygala tenuifolia, Acorus gramineus and Huperzia serrata, examined here within), extracts and compounds have, to date, already presented advantageous results when tested against known pathogenic markers related to AD‐associated dementia. The efficaciousness of herbal medicines appears to be a modulatory effect on neurotrophins, kinases and their substrates that, in turn, initiate or take part in intracellular cascades related to memory processes. Copyright

The relation between apoptosis of acinar cells and nitric oxide during acute rejection of pancreas transplantation in rats.

Apoptosis is an important mechanism of immune-mediated graft damage. Nitric oxide (NO) generated by inducible NO synthase (iNOS) has been demonstrated to induce apoptosis. This study investigated whether apoptosis occurs during pancreas allograft rejection and examined the relationship of apoptosis of acinar cells and NO. The rats were divided into three groups: untreated isograft group, untreated allograft group and aminoguanidine (AG)-treated group. The pancreatic grafts were harvested on the post-transplantation day 3, 5 and 7 and were used to detect the histopathological rejection grade, the expression of iNOS and the apoptotic index (AI) of the graft. iNOS presented faint positive in the acinar cells of untreated isografts and did not change greatly after transplantation (P>0.05), the level of iNOS in the untreated allografts increased progressively (P<0.01) and at the same time point was significantly higher than that of untreated isograft group and AG-treated group (P<0.01). The transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling showed that the apoptotic cells were mainly acinar cells. A significant correlation between AI and iNOS was noted (P<0.01, r=0.611). Therefore, NO-mediated apoptosis of acinar cells plays an important role in acute rejection of pancreas transplantation, AG can mitigate the damage of pancreas allografts.