. Extract Attenuates Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction, Systemic Inflammation, and Neuroinflammation.
John Man Tak Chu, Wei Xiong, Ke Gang Linghu, Yan Liu, Yan Zhang, Guan Ding Zhao, Michael G Irwin, Gordon Tin Chun Wong, Hua Yu
Author Information
John Man Tak Chu: Department of Anaesthesiology, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam 999077, Hong Kong, China.
Wei Xiong: Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, University of Macau, Macao SAR 999078, China.
Ke Gang Linghu: Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, University of Macau, Macao SAR 999078, China.
Yan Liu: Department of Anaesthesiology, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam 999077, Hong Kong, China.
Yan Zhang: Department of Anaesthesiology, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam 999077, Hong Kong, China.
Guan Ding Zhao: Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, University of Macau, Macao SAR 999078, China.
Michael G Irwin: Department of Anaesthesiology, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam 999077, Hong Kong, China.
Gordon Tin Chun Wong: Department of Anaesthesiology, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam 999077, Hong Kong, China.
Hua Yu: Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, University of Macau, Macao SAR 999078, China.
A proportion of patients experience acute or even prolonged cognitive impairment after surgery, a condition known as postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD). It is characterized by impairment in different cognitive domains and neuroinflammation has been implicated as one of the inciting factors as strategies targeting inflammation tend to improve cognitive performance. () is a common Chinese medicinal herb used for managing chronic inflammatory diseases. We investigated if pretreatment with before surgery confers any neuroprotective effects in postoperative animals in terms of reducing inflammation and mitigating cognitive impairment. Three-month-old male C57BL/6N mice were fed different doses of extract for 14 days before they underwent a laparotomy. After cognitive testing they were sacrificed on postoperative day (POD) 3. Our results showed that animals with extract pretreatment demonstrated memory improvement in a dose-dependent manner compared with control. Further, evidence for the attenuation of systemic and neuroinflammation was found in the pretreated animals, along with the inhibition of inflammatory pathways and significantly reduced tau phosphorylation in the hippocampus. Taken together, these results demonstrated a neuroprotective effect of in postoperative animals, indicating a therapeutic potential of in minimizing POCD and the possibility of utilizing this traditional Chinese medicine perioperatively.
