Research Paper Volume 15, Issue 20 pp 11546—11553
Icariin improves cognitive impairment by inhibiting ferroptosis of nerve cells
- 1 Shenyang Medical College, Shenyang 110000, Liaoning Province, China
- 2 Criminal Investigation Police University of China, Shenyang 110000, Liaoning Province, China
- 3 College of Chinese Medicinal Materials, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun 130118, Jilin, China
- 4 The Second Affiliated Hospital of Jiaxing University, Jiaxing 314001, Zhejiang Province, China
Received: July 4, 2023 Accepted: September 27, 2023 Published: October 24, 2023
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.205144How to Cite
Copyright: © 2023 Yang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Aim: We investigated the effect and mechanism of Icariin (ICA) on improving neurobehavioral ability of mice with Alzheimer's disease (AD).
Methods: We selected 10-month-old APP/PS1 mice (AD) and wild-type C57BL/6J mice (Normal). After intragastric administration of ICA, Morris water maze was employed to detect neurobehavioral improvements, and to assay key ferroptosis indicators and oxidative stress levels. The common target of ICA for resisting ferroptosis and AD was predicted by network pharmacology.
Results: ICA could improve the neurobehavioral, memory and motor abilities of AD mice. It could lower the ferroptosis level and enhance the resistance to oxidative stress. After inhibition of MDM2, ICA could no longer improve the cognitive ability of AD mice, nor could it further inhibit ferroptosis. Network pharmacological analysis revealed that MDM2 might be the target of ICA action.
Conclusions: We found that ICA can inhibit ferroptosis of nerve cells, thereby ameliorating neural damage in mice with AD.