Long-term administration of salvianolic acid A promotes endogenous neurogenesis in ischemic stroke rats through activating Wnt3a/GSK3β/β-catenin signaling pathway

Well shit this from September 2016 was never followed up with human research so why expect anything from the latest?

Salvianolic acid A alleviates ischemic brain injury through the inhibition of inflammation and apoptosis and the promotion of neurogenesis in mice

 September 2016

The latest here:

Long-term administration of salvianolic acid A promotes endogenous neurogenesis in ischemic stroke rats through activating Wnt3a/GSK3β/β-catenin signaling pathway

• Sen Zhang,
• De-wen Kong,
• Guo-dong Ma,
• Cheng-di Liu,
• Yu-jiao Yang,
• Shan Liu,
• Nan Jiang,
• Zi-rong Pan,
• Wen Zhang,
• Ling-lei Kong &
• Guan-hua Du 

Acta Pharmacologica Sinica (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Stroke is the major cause of death and disability worldwide. Most stroke patients who survive in the acute phase of ischemia display various extents of neurological deficits. In order to improve the prognosis of ischemic stroke, promoting endogenous neurogenesis has attracted great attention. Salvianolic acid A (SAA) has shown neuroprotective effects against ischemic diseases. In the present study, we investigated the neurogenesis effects of SAA in ischemic stroke rats, and explored the underlying mechanisms. An autologous thrombus stroke model was established by electrocoagulation. The rats were administered SAA (10 mg/kg, ig) or a positive drug edaravone (5 mg/kg, iv) once a day for 14 days. We showed that SAA administration significantly decreased infarction volume and vascular embolism, and ameliorated pathological injury in the hippocampus and striatum as well as the neurological deficits as compared with the model rats. Furthermore, we found that SAA administration significantly promoted neural stem/progenitor cells (NSPCs) proliferation, migration and differentiation into neurons, enhanced axonal regeneration and diminished neuronal apoptosis around the ipsilateral subventricular zone (SVZ), resulting in restored neural density and reconstructed neural circuits in the ischemic striatum. Moreover, we revealed that SAA-induced neurogenesis was associated to activating Wnt3a/GSK3β/β-catenin signaling pathway and downstream target genes in the hippocampus and striatum. Edaravone exerted equivalent inhibition on neuronal apoptosis in the SVZ, as SAA, but edaravone-induced neurogenesis was weaker than that of SAA. Taken together, our results demonstrate that long-term administration of SAA improves neurological function through enhancing endogenous neurogenesis and inhibiting neuronal apoptosis in ischemic stroke rats via activating Wnt3a/GSK3β/β-catenin signaling pathway. SAA may be a potential therapeutic drug to promote neurogenesis after stroke.

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Salvianolic acid A alleviates ischemic brain injury through the inhibition of inflammation and apoptosis and the promotion of neurogenesis in mice

I bet we won't get any followup trials in humans on this because our fucking failures of stroke associations will have failed once again to do the right thing. 

Salvianolic acid A alleviates ischemic brain injury through the inhibition of inflammation and apoptosis and the promotion of neurogenesis in mice

• Mei-Yin Chien^{b, l},
• Cheng-Hung Chuang^c,
• Chang-Ming Chern^{f, g},
• Kou-Tong Liou^m,
• Der-Zen Liu^{e, h, , 1,} ,
• Yu-Chang Hou^{d, i, 1},
• Yuh-Chiang Shen^{a, j, k, 1, ,}

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2016.09.006

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Highlights

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BDNF upregulation by SalA causes activation of the PI3K/Akt pathway.

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Inhibition of GSK-3 pathways for anti-apoptosis and neurogenesis by SalA.

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Prevention of p25 production/Cdk5 activation by SalA is beneficial in stroke.

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Abstract

Salvianolic acid A (SalA), a chemical type of caffeic acid trimer, has drawn great attention for its potent bioactivities against ischemia-induced injury both in vitro and in vivo. In this study, we evaluated SalA's protective effects against acute ischemic stroke by inducing middle cerebral artery occlusion/reperfusion (MCAO) injuries in mice. Treatment of the mice with SalA (50 and 100 μg/kg, i.v.) at 2 h after MCAO enhanced their survival rate, improved their moving activity, and ameliorated the severity of brain infarction and apoptosis seen in the mice by diminishing pathological changes such as the extensive breakdown of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), nitrosative stress, and the activation of an inflammatory transcriptional factor p65 nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) and a pro-apoptotic kinase p25/Cdk5. SalA also intensively limited cortical infarction and promoted the expression of neurogenesis protein near the peri-infarct cortex and subgranular zone of the hippocampal dentate gyrus by compromising the activation of GSK3β and p25/Cdk5, which in turn upregulated β-catenin, doublecortin (DCX), and Bcl-2, most possibly through the activation of PI3K/Akt signaling via the upregulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor. We conclude that SalA blocks inflammatory responses by impairing NF-κB signaling, thereby limiting inflammation/nitrosative stress and preserving the integrity of the BBB; SalA also concomitantly promotes neurogenesis-related protein expression by compromising GSK3β/Cdk5 activity to enhance the expression levels of β-catenin/DCX and Bcl-2 for neuroprotection.

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Graphical abstract

Direct Stimulation of Adult Neural Stem/Progenitor Cells In Vitro and Neurogenesis In Vivo by Salvianolic Acid B

Some actual TCM research. 

Direct Stimulation of Adult Neural Stem/Progenitor Cells In Vitro and Neurogenesis In Vivo by Salvianolic Acid B

Introduction Top

Ischemic brain damage is one of the most dangerous ailments that lead to learning and memory disability, physical dysfunction and even death. Up to now, no effective treatment has been reported [1]. Neurons as terminally differentiated cells cannot regenerate after injury in traditional view. However, appropriate exercise training can facilitate some neurological function recovery after stroke in clinical practice [2], [3], with the evidence that neurogenesis occurs in the adult brain. Neural stem/precursor cells (NSPCs) had been found and confirmed in adult brain in past decades that it can differentiate into neurons or glial cells as a result of neurogenesis [4]–[7], NSPCs can be stimulated in several pathological conditions, such as neurological diseases, cerebral ischemic in adult brain, and many reports showed that they are an excellent candidate for developing therapeutic strategies to repair the injured CNS [8], [9]. Although the NSPCs would be stimulated to proliferation and differentiation during the brain injury, often this response is not sufficient to overcome the damage. It is essential to study the signalling mechanisms that are activated by small molecular materials in the NSPCs to enhance their response pharmacologically. NSPCs proliferation and neurogensis involves a series of intracellular signaling pathways [10], [11]. Among these pathways, the activation of Notch, mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) and phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathways are known to play major roles in cell growth and survival responses [12]–[14]. Numerous studies have shown that small molecular materials such as growth factors [15], retinoic acid [16] and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) active constituent [17], [18] can regulate the biological characteristics of neural stem cell and promote neurogenesis. Therefore, regulation of neurogenesis by NSPCs is anticipated as a noble therapeutic strategy for brain damage.
Herbs have been used for treating diseases for centuries, and a lot of natural compounds that with neural beneficial from medicinal plants had been discovered [19]. Treatment of stroke by TCM has a wealth of clinical experience and theoretical basis, and a large number of effective clinical prescriptions have been accumulated. In recent years a large number of studies have shown that TCM prescription and its active ingredient can improve cerebral ischemic injury in experimental animal [20], [21]. Ginsenoside Rb1 and Rg1, for example, improved spatial learning and increase hippocampal synaptophysin level in mice [22]. Curcumin had been demonstrated to stimulate developmental and adult hippocampal neurogenesis, and a biological activity that may enhance neural plasticity and repair [23]. A recent report has shown that NeuroAid (MLC601 and MLC901), a Traditional Chinese Medicine is used in China for patients after stroke, reduced the increase in escape latency and in swim distance induced by ischemia [24]. With an extensive clinical experience, there are ample opportunities to discover natural compounds that effectively promote the proliferation of NSPCs and neurogenesis from TCM.

Results Top

Salvianolic acid B induced the proliferation of cultured NSPCs in vitro

Forty-five herbal compounds, which are extensively used clinically for treating stroke in China, were screened in an in vitro proliferation assay to identify compounds that could induce proliferation of NSPCs. As shown in Fig. 1, among these natural compounds screened, berberine and Sal B displayed marked activity promoting NSPCs proliferation. In the following study, the proliferative effect of berberine and Sal B were systematically investigated but the action of berberine was proved to be an illusion by BrdU incorporation assay (See Figure S1 in the Supporting Information).
To study the proliferation-inducing effect of Sal B in detail, we investigated effects of Sal B on the viability of NSPCs in vitro using the MTS assay, NSPCs were treated with Sal B at different concentrations and for different durations. We investigated Sal B at 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 µM dose exposure for 24 hours, and at 20 µM dose incubated for 24, 48, 72 hours on promoting NSPCs proliferation. The results showed that the viability of NSPCs significantly increased as the dose (P<0.01, F_{(6, 35)} = 103.06) and time increases (P<0.01, Fig. 2A–B). The number and size of neurospheres were increased by addition of 20 µM of Sal B (Figure 2C–D). These results suggested that Sal B significantly increased the viability of NSPCs in dose- and time- dependent manners.