The combination of aricept with a traditional Chinese medicine formula, smart soup, may be a novel way to treat Alzheimer's disease.

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a common neurodegenerative disease affecting cognitive function in the elderly, which is characterized by the presence of extracellular deposits of insoluble amyloid-β plaques and neuronal loss. Modern pharmacology and drug development usually follow a single-target principle, which might contribute to the failure of most compounds in clinical trials against AD. Considering AD is a multifactorial disease, a combination therapeutic strategy that applies drugs with different mechanisms would be an alternative way. Smart Soup (SS), a Traditional Chinese Medicine formula, is composed of three herbaceous plants and has been applied in the treatment of amnesia in China for hundreds of years. In this work, we studied the clinical potency of the combination of SS and Aricept in AD therapy. In the in vivo model, both longevity and locomotive activity of AD transgenic Drosophila were improved remarkably in the combined medicine treated group. We also observed less amyloid-β deposition and retarded neuronal loss following the combined drug treatment. In the retrospective cohort study, we found the combination therapy exerted better therapeutic effect on AD patients. Our study revealed that combination therapy with multiple drug targets did have a better therapeutic outcome. It provides a new strategy to develop an optimum pharmaceutical approach against AD.

• Authors: Ying Wang, Ying Wang, Yi Sui, Hongshuang Yu, Xiaoheng Shen, Shengdi Chen, Gang Pei, Jian Zhao, Jianqing Ding
• Journal: Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD (J Alzheimers Dis) Vol. 45 Issue 4 Pg. 1185-95 ( 2015) ISSN: 1875-8908 [Electronic] Netherlands
• PMID: 25690664 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Amyloid beta-Peptides
• Drugs, Chinese Herbal
• Indans
• Nootropic Agents
• Piperidines
• Donepezil

Topics

• Aged
• Alzheimer Disease (drug therapy, metabolism, pathology)
• Amyloid beta-Peptides (metabolism)
• Animals
• Animals, Genetically Modified
• Brain (metabolism, pathology)
• Disease Models, Animal
• Donepezil
• Drosophila
• Drug Therapy, Combination
• Drugs, Chinese Herbal (pharmacology, therapeutic use)
• Humans
• Indans (pharmacology, therapeutic use)
• Medicine, Chinese Traditional
• Neurons (metabolism, pathology)
• Nootropic Agents (pharmacology, therapeutic use)
• Piperidines (pharmacology, therapeutic use)
• Retrospective Studies
• Treatment Outcome