Carcinogenesis, Teratogenesis & Mutagenesis ›› 2025, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (3): 196-201.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1004-616x.2025.03.004

Previous Articles    

Therapeutic potential of panaxydol on Alzheimer's disease

ZHANG Weijiang1, YANG Jie2, YU Zhiying1, HE Jianghua1, XU Wenjuan1   

  1. 1. School of Life Sciences, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 102488;
    2. School of Chinese Materia Medica, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 102488, China
  • Received:2024-09-27 Revised:2025-03-11 Published:2025-06-13

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: To use network pharmacology analysis together with molecular docking and in vitro cell experiments for evaluating therapeutic potential of ginseng cyclopentadienol (PND) on Alzheimer's disease,and for understanding its protective effect on neurons. METHODS: Targets of PND in the treatment of Alzheimer' s disease were screened based on PharmMapper, GeneCards, STRING and other databases, and a protein interaction network was constructed. Characteristic pathways were identified by GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis and then verified by molecular docking technology. An L-glutamate-induced cell injury model was established using human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells. After treatment of these cells with different concentrations of PND (10,20,40 μmol/L), cell activity was detected by CCK-8 method,and apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry. RESULTS: A PND-core target-characteristic pathway-Alzheimer's disease network was constructed, and the important targets regulated by PND were found to be ALB, AKT1, EGFR, SRC, CASP3, NFKB1, PTGS2, PPARG, etc. Multiple pathways were identified to involve EGFR, C-type lectin receptor signaling,RAS signaling,PI3K-Akt signaling and Alzheimer's disease signaling. The molecular docking results showed that PND had a good regulatory effect on targets such as CYP3A4,APP,and EGFR. Results from the in vitro cell experiments showed that the survival rate of SH-SY5Y cells in the L-glutamate-induced nerve injury model group was reduced,and the cell survival rate in the 20 μmol/L PND treatment group was higher than that in the model group (P<0.01);the total apoptosis rate of nerve cells in the model group was 45.23%,and the apoptosis rates of cells in the 10,20 and 40 μmol/L PND treatment groups were 41.34%, 36.96% and 21.86% , respectively, which were lower than those in the model group (P<0.05 or P<0.01). CONCLUSION: PND showed a neuroprotective effect which may be useful for treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

Key words: panaxydol, network pharmacology, Alzheimer's disease, neuroprotection

CLC Number: