Uncaria rhynchophylla is a medicinal herb which has sedative and anticonvulsive effects and has been applied in the treatment of epilepsy in Oriental medicine. Recently it has been shown that uncaria rhynchophylla can prevent beta amyloid formation. See a list of medicinal herbs.
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Uncaria Research
Uncaria rhynchophylla, a Chinese medicinal herb, has
potent antiaggregation effects on Alzheimer's beta-amyloid proteins.
J Neurosci Res. 2006 May 4; Department of Geriatric and Complementary
Medicine, Center for Asian Traditional Medicine Research, Tohoku University
School of Medicine, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan.
Because the deposition of beta-amyloid protein (Abeta) is a consistent
pathological hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD) brains, inhibition of Abeta
generation, prevention of Abeta fibril formation, or destabilization of
preformed Abeta fibrils would be attractive therapeutic strategies for the
treatment of AD. We examined the effects of several medicinal herbs used in
traditional Chinese medical formulae on the formation and destabilization of
Abeta fibrils. Our study demonstrates that several of these herbs have potent
inhibitory effects on fibril formation of both Abeta(1-40) and Abeta(1-42) in
concentration-dependent manners; in particular, Uncaria rhynchophylla inhibited
Abeta aggregation most intensively. Significant destabilization of preformed
Abeta(1-40) and Abeta(1-42) fibrils was also induced by Uncaria rhynchophylla as
well as some other herb extracts. Three-dimensional HPLC analysis indicated that
the water extract of this herb contains several different chemical compounds,
including oxindole and indol alkaloids, which have been regarded as
neuroprotective. Our results suggest that Uncaria rhynchophylla has remarkably
inhibitory effects on the regulation of Abeta fibrils, and we conclude that this
medicinal herb could have the potency to be a novel therapeutic agent to prevent
and/or cure AD.
Uncaria rhynchophylla induces angiogenesis in vitro and
in vivo.
Biol Pharm Bull. 2005 Dec;28(12):2248-52.Department of Acupuncture &
Moxibustion, College of Oriental Medicine, 1 Hoegidong, Dongdaemungu, Seoul,
Korea.
Angiogenesis consists of the proliferation, migration, and differentiation of
endothelial cells, and angiogenic factors and matrix protein interactions
modulate this process. The aim of this study was to determine the angiogenic
properties of Uncaria rhynchophylla. Uncaria rhynchophylla significantly
enhanced human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) proliferation in a
dose-dependent manner. These results suggest that Uncaria rhynchophylla could
potentially used to accelerate vascular wound healing or to promote the growth
of collateral blood vessel in ischemic tissues.
Alkaloid fraction of Uncaria rhynchophylla protects
against N-methyl-D-aspartate-induced apoptosis in rat hippocampal slices.
Neurosci Lett. 2003 Sep 4;348(1):51-5. Department of Herbal Pharmacology,
Graduate School of East-West Medical Science, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South
Korea.
In this study, the effect of alkaloid fraction of U. rhynchophylla against
N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)-induced neuronal cell death was investigated.
Pretreatment with an alkaloid fraction of U. rhynchophylla for 1 h decreased the
degree of neuronal damage induced by NMDA exposure in cultured hippocampal
slices and also inhibited NMDA-induced enhanced expressions of apoptosis-related
genes such as c-jun, p53, and bax. In the present study, the alkaloid fraction
of U. rhynchophylla was shown to have a protective property against NMDA-induced
cytotoxicity by suppressing the NMDA-induced apoptosis in rat hippocampal
slices.
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