Protection Induced By Ginsenoside Rb1 in Alzheimer’s Disease Model is Associated With Redressing The Neuronal Hyperexcitability Which is Regulated By Nav1.2 and Nav1.6

Abstract Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a neurodegenerative disease showing multiple complex pathomechanism alterations, has affected the normal life of many old people. It is urgent to find an effective medicine for AD. Ginsenoside Rb1 (Rb1) is the main component of panax notoginseng saponins, a famous Chinese herbal medicine, and is expected to be a useful drug in the treatment of AD. This study mainly explored the potential effects of Rb1 in model of AD in vivo and in vitro, and investigated the possible mechanisms. Materials and methods: We studied the neuroprotective effect of Rb1 in transgenic mouse animal model and cell AD model in vitro. The cognitive function of APP/PS1 mice was measured in Morris water maze and Novel Object Recognition. Electrophysiological patch clamp recording and electrophysiology were used to nerve excitability. Further, the expression of proteins of Nav1.2 and Nav1.6 were used by Western blot. Results: We found that Rb1 treatment significantly improved the cognitive and memory loss, and reversed the hyperexcitability by altering the expressions of Nav1.2 and Nav1.6 of APP/PS1 mice. Further, Rb1 improved the hyperexcitability induced by Aβ1-42-injured neurons, which might be associated with alteration of the expressions of Nav1.2 and Nav1.6. As we expect, Rb1 attenuated Aβ1-42-induced injury in primary neurons. Conclusion: Our data showed that Rb1 played a critical role in improvement of the cognitive deficit and abnormal excitability of AD by regulating Nav1.2 and Nav1.6 expressions. Thus, Rb1 shows protective effects on AD models and may be a potential candidate for AD treatment.