β-Amyrin Ameliorates Alzheimer's Disease-Like Aberrant Synaptic Plasticity in the Mouse Hippocampus.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive and most frequently diagnosed neurodegenerative disorder. However, there is still no drug preventing the progress of this disorder. beta-Amyrin, an ingredient of the surface wax of tomato fruit and dandelion coffee, is previously reported to ameliorate memory impairment induced by cholinergic dysfunction. Therefore, we tested whether beta-amyrin can prevent AD-like pathology. beta-Amyrin blocked amyloid beta (A beta)-induced long-term potentiation (LTP) impairment in the hippocampal slices. Moreover, beta-amyrin improved A beta-induced suppression of phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt signaling. LY294002, a PI3K inhibitor, blocked the effect of li-amyrin on A beta-induced LTP impairment. In in vivo experiments, we observed that beta-amyrin ameliorated object recognition memory deficit in A beta-injected AD mice model. Moreover, neurogenesis impairments induced by A beta was improved by beta-amyrin treatment. Taken together, beta-amyrin might be a good candidate of treatment or supplement for AD patients.