The pathogenesis of
Alzheimer's disease (AD) involves multiple contributing factors, including
amyloid β (Aβ)
peptide aggregation,
inflammation, oxidative stress, and others. Effective therapeutic drugs for treating AD are urgently needed. SQYZ granules (SQYZ), a Chinese
herbal preparation, are mainly composed of the
ginsenoside Rg1,
astragaloside A and
baicalin, and have been widely used to treat
dementias for decades in China. In this study, we found the
therapeutic effects of SQYZ on the
cognitive impairments in an AD mouse model, the β-
amyloid precursor
protein (APP) and
presenilin-1 (PS1) double-transgenic mouse, which co-expresses five familial AD mutations (5XFAD); next, we further explored the underlying mechanism and observed that after SQYZ treatment, the Aβ burden and inflammatory reactions in the brain were significantly attenuated. Through a proteomic approach, we found that SQYZ regulated the expression of 27
proteins, mainly those related to
neuroinflammation, stress responses and energy metabolism. These results suggested that SQYZ has the ability to improve the
cognitive impairment and ameliorate the neural pathological changes in AD, and the therapeutic mechanism may be related to the modulation of multiple processes related to AD pathogenesis, especially anti-
neuroinflammation, promotion of stress recovery and improvement of energy metabolism.