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Centella asiatica (L.) Urb. (Apiaceae) is a renowned medicinal plant being used in the Ayurvedic system for its pharmacological effects on the central nervous system such as rejuvenating, sedative, anxiolytic and memory-enhancing properties. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of Centella asiatica (CA) extract on inflammatory responses induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and resulting changes in cognitive behavior. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into 4 groups as control, LPS, CA and LPS + CA. The treatments with LPS (5 mg/kg) were intraperitoneally (i.p) injected on day 4 and CA ethanol extract (200 mg/kg) were given orally for 14 days. Morris Water Maze (MWM) test was performed to assess spatial learning and memory performance. Acute oral toxicity of the extract at the highest dose of 5000 mg/kg was also conducted. Single administration of LPS was able to significantly elicit learning and memory impairment (p <.05) when compared to the control groups. Treatment with CA significantly improved the impaired learning ability in which the LPS + CA rats took the shortest time and route to find the hidden platform (15.85 ± 2.68 s (p <.001); 352.43 ± 88.10 cm (p <.001) on day 5) and induced differential cytokine responses in the blood. No mortality and no significant variation in the body and organ weights between the control and the treated group was observed after 14 days of acute toxicity study. Hematological analysis and biochemical parameters revealed no toxic effects of the extract. Pathologically, neither gross abnormalities nor histopathological changes were observed. Centella asiatica extract exhibited significant learning and memory enhancement potential in animal model. Hence, indicating its putative preventive therapeutic effects in neuroinflammation related diseases. A single dose of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (5 mg/kg) administered systemically to mimic the consequences of LPS-induced inflammatory responses was able to affect some behavioral modification of spatial memory at the time point of study. The study showed that the learning capability during the training trial was restored or ameliorated with the pre-emptive treatment of Centella asiatica extract (200 mg/kg). Centella asiatica extract improves spatial memory, learning deficits and regulates proinflammatory responses in systemic LPS-treated rats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The generation of free radicals and oxidative stress has been linked to several neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. The determination of free radical scavenging agents for the reduction of intracellular reactive oxygen species is one of the approaches used in the clinical management of neurodegeneration. Centella asiatica is an important medicinal plant with an extensive range of ethnomedicinal uses that have been reported to exhibit ranges of bioactivity. Methods: Bioassay-guided fractionation was performed in this study to determine the active fraction of C. asiatica which responds to neuroprotective effects on H2O2-induced neurotoxic neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cell lines. The results were expressed as a percentage of cell viability which was determined using an MTT assay after each of the experiments. Results: In comparison to ethanolic extract, post-treatment with methanolic extracts at 0.49-125 g/ml demonstrated the best protection against H2O2-induced cells by enhancing cell viability. Six fractions were produced by further bioassay-guided separation of the methanolic extract. All fractions exhibit neuroprotective effects at concentrations ranging from 0.49 to 1 25 g/ml, which enhanced the vitality of H2O2-induced SH-SY5Y cells. Conclusion: The treatment of C. asiatica on H2O2-induced neurotoxicity showed promise, according to the findings. Taken together, this study may suggest C. asiatica as a potential therapeutic treatment for H2O2-induced neurotoxicity and further study should be done to investigate the active compound attributed to these neuroprotective effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Abnormalities in apoptotic signalling pathways often occur in cancer cells and limit the successful chemotherapy outcomes in cancers. Therefore, there is an urgent need to discover new anticancer agents with novel mechanisms of action to overcome the resistance effect in chemotherapy., Materials and Methods: In the present study, the anticancer effects and the mechanisms of action of 17βH-neriifolin (cardiac glycoside) were evaluated by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) assay and a proteomic approach in treated and non-treated SKOV-3 ovarian cancer cells., Results: 17βH-neriifolin was found to be active with IC50 values of 0.01 ± 0.001 in SKOV-3 ovarian cancer cell line, as evaluated by the sulforhodamine B (SRB) assay. RESULTS from TUNEL assay indicated that 17βH-neriifolin caused apoptosis in SKOV-3 cells in a dose-dependent manner. Based on differential analysis of treated and non-treated SKOV-3 two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) profiles, four proteins, namely vimentin (VIM), pyruvate kinase, muscle (PKM), heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein A1 (HNRNPA1) and transgelin (TAGLN1) were identified to be involved in apoptosis. Other proteins including piggybac transposable element derived 5 (PGBD5), DENN/MADD domain containing 2D (DENND2D) and formin-like 1(FMNL) have also been identified to be associated in SKOV-3 cell death induced by 17βH-neriifolin., Conclusion: These findings may provide new insights on the potential of 17βH-neriifolin's mechanism of action in killing ovarian cancer cells., (Copyright© 2014 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. John G. Delinassios), All rights reserved.)