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Stroke is a highly lethal and disabling disease of the central nervous system exacerbated by oxidative stress, inflammation, and ferroptosis. However, the blood–brain barrier makes it extremely difficult for most medications to enter the brain, necessitating extremely high drug concentrations. Thus, we developed platelet-derived nanoparticles to deliver ginkgolide B (GB), a compound that has anti-inflammatory, antioxidative stress, and ferroptosis inhibition properties and assists acute stroke recovery. GB was encapsulated in a platelet membrane (PM) with a particle size of approximately 68.32 ± 3.7 nm, and the encapsulation efficiency reached 79.43 ± 6.3%. Experiments showed that PM-derived nanoparticles with GB (PM-GB) increased the activity of glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) and decreased malondialdehyde-(MDA) and reactive oxygen species-(ROS) levels in the brain. Additionally, the PM-GB group had higher ferroptosis suppressor protein (GPX4, FSP1) expression, approximately 4-folds, with lower levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α, and ferroptosis marker protein (PTGS2) compared with the OGD group. In conclusion, PM-GB reduces ferroptosis and inflammation by inhibiting oxidative stress, which protects neural cells and promotes motor recovery in middle cerebral artery occlusion model rats (MCAO/R). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Areca Thirteen Pill, also called Gao You-13 (GY-13), is a traditional Mongolian herbal formula and has been extensively used to treat depression in Mongolian areas, which belongs to Heyi disease in Mongolian medicine. Major depressive disorder is a serious psychiatric disease, only one-third of individuals with depression are responsive to current antidepressants in clinic. Growing attention has been attracted by traditional herbal medicines in fighting depression because they are considered safer alternatives to pharmacotherapy. To reveal the mechanism of GY-13 in the treatment of depression. The rat depression model was established by chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS), and primary hippocampal neurons were used to construct a glutamate-induced excitotoxicity model. The antidepressant effect of GY-13 was then assessed by performing sucrose preference tests, open field tests, and body weight measurements on rats. The expression of cAMP and PKA, mRNA levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and cAMP response element binding protein (CREB), and hippocampal neuronal apoptosis were measured. The results indicate that GY-13 significantly improves depression-like behavior, rescues decreased cAMP， PKA, recovers the mRNA levels of CREB and BDNF, and increases the proliferative activity of hippocampus. In addition, blockade of PKA reverses the effects of GY-13 treatment on CREB mRNA, BDNF mRNA levels. In vitro, GY-13 treatment increased hippocampal proliferative activity and attenuated Glu-induced apoptosis of hippocampal neurons as well as reduced CREB mRNA and BDNF mRNA expression levels. Our research demonstrated that GY-13 treatment exerted a potent antidepressant action via activation of cAMP/CREB/BDNF signaling pathway, promoting proliferation, and suppressing apoptosis. This research provides molecular biological ground for developing GY-13 into a potent alternative for the intervention of depression. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the effect of acupuncture of "Daimai"(GB26) on abdominal fat accumulation, lipid metabolism and hepatic oxidative stress in abdominal obese non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) rats., Methods: male SD rats were divided into 3 groups: normal diet (normal, n ＝8), high fat diet control (model) and acupuncture ( n ＝8/group in the latter 2 groups). The abdominal obese NAFLD model was established by feeding the rats with high fat diet for 12 weeks. EA (2 Hz/15 Hz, 1.5 mA) was applied to bilateral GB26 for 20 min, once every other day for 8 weeks. Rats of the model group were also restrained for 20 min as those in the EA group. The body mass and abdominal circumference were measured weekly, the isolated adipose tissues around the bilateral kidney and epididymis and the fresh liver were weighed. The contents of serum cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), alanine transaminase (ALT), glutamic oxaloacetic aminotransferase (AST) were detected by using an automatic biochemical analyzer. The abdominal visceral fat distribution was acquired by CT scanning. The oxidative stress indexes of the homogenated liver tissues, such as malondialdehyde (MDA) was assayed using sodium thiobarbital (TBA) method, and the activity of total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX) were assayed by using hydroxylamine method and colorimetric method respectively. The histopathological changes of the liver were observed after staining with hematoxylin-eosin (HE)., Results: Following modeling, the body mass and waist circumference, visceral fat weight of bilateral kidneys and testis (visceral fat weight), liver weight, serum ALT, AST, TG and TC and liver MDA contents, were significantly higher in the model group ( P <0.001， P <0.05), while hepatic T-SOD and GSH-PX activity was considerably lower in the model group than those in the normal group ( P <0.001). After acupuncture intervention, the levels of all the above-mentioned indexes (modeling induced both increase and decrease) were reversed relevant to the model group ( P <0.05, P <0.01). The results of CT scanning showed that the fat accumulation area in the abdomen was 8.67 cm 2, 18.51 cm 2 and 13.75 cm 2 in the normal, model and acupuncture groups, respectively, presenting a decrease after acupuncture. H．E. staining displayed that the degree of hepatic steatosis (including vague hepatic lobule boundary, disordered arrangement of hepatic cord, hepatocellular swelling, diffuse fatty degeneration, unequal-sized lipid droplets in the hepatocytes, nucleus excursion and dissolution after modeling) was improved after acupuncture., Conclusion: Acupuncture can reduce body weight and abdominal fat accumulation in abdominal obese NAFLD rats, which may be related to its effects in inhibiting oxidative stress (lowering MDA level and increasing the activity of T-SOD and GSH-PX) and improving hepatic lipid metabolism.