Effects of Agents with Antioxidant and Anti-inflammatory Properties on Preventing Memory Impairments due to Aging - From an In Vitro study to an in Vivo Animal Model

Effects of Agents with Antioxidant and Anti-inflammatory Properties on Preventing Memory Impairments due to Aging - From an In Vitro study to an in Vivo Animal Model

  In the progression of neurodegeneration during the normal aging process, as well as in age-related neurological disorders such as Alzheimer"s disease (AD) and Parkinson"s disease (PD), the importance of glial cell-propagated inflammation (termed "neuroinflammation’) and oxidative stress has been highly appreciated and heightened interest in the rapid discovery of neuroinflammation- and oxidative stress-targeted therapeutics. Cognitive deficits due to aging and AD are also related to an increased vulnerability to oxidative stress and inflammation. However, the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for AD has largely failed due to gastrointestinal and occasional liver and kidney toxicity caused by cyclooxygenase (COX-1) inhibition. Therefore, interest has also been generated in searching for alternative natural anti-inflammatory agents that particularly target microglia-mediated neuroinflammation. We used in vitro assays to screen natural products that have a neuroprotective and antioxidative effect in the murine hippocampal cell line, as well as an anti-neuroinflammatory effect in primary and cultured microglia. We found some compounds isolated from natural medicinal plants and seaweed crude extracts that have both antioxidative and anti-inflammatory activities in murine neuron and microglia cells. We also present a chronic neuroinflammatory animal model accompanied with an impairment of the spatial learning memory to further screen antioxidative and anti-neuroinflammatory agents in vivo.