Herb Preparations Improve the Viability of Hippocampal Cells Suppressed by Amyloid Beta (1-42) Peptide

Abstract

The aggregated amyloid peptides (Aβs) are considered as the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. We studied the ability of plant preparations, decreasing the aggregation state of amyloid peptides, to improve the viability of different type hippocampal cells, preliminarily suppressed by aggregated Aβ(1-42) peptide. The hippocampal cells were stained by antibodies against rabbit anti-rat Neurofilament (NF), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and Nestin, which are specific for neuronal, glial and multipotent neural stem cells (NSCs), respectively. The aggregated Aβ(1-42) decreased in vitro the viability of all cell types down to <20 %. In the presence of phenol glycosides fraction from rose petals, ethanol extracts from sorrel leaves and melilot, the viability of GFAP- positive cells was restored up to ~170-150% of Aβ(1-42)-controls. The viability of Nestin-positive cells was restored by phenol glycosides fraction from rose petals and ethanol extract from sorrel leaves up to 210 and 230%, respectively, (p<0.05). Because the glial (GFAP-positive) and neural stem cells (Nestin-positive) can be reprogrammed into neurons, we can suggest sourcing therapeutics for neurodegeneration prevention and/or treatment from these plants.