The early intervention of geniposide and PNS combination modulated Aβ production and synaptic plasticity in young APP/PS1 transgenic mice

Abstract Background Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a common neurodegenerative disease with age-related, which accounts for nearly 80% of dementia. Accompanied with aging population worldwide and clinical failures in AD drugs, early prevention and diagnosis are under main concern. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has a long history in the prevention of cognition declines. In clinic, the combination of geniposide and Panax notoginseng saponin (PNS) is clinically efficacious in the treatment of ischemic cerebral stroke and vascular dementia. In vivo, under a preventive strategy, the combination can improve spatial learning and memory and reduce amyloid plaques in a variety of AD-like animal models. Methods In order to illustrate the neuroprotective role of geniposide and PNS combination under the early intervention strategy, we medically administrated at one-month age of APP/PS1 transgenic mice for three months. The morphology of pyramidal neurons in hippocampus CA1 was observed after Hematoxylin and Eosin staining (HE staining) and the dendritic spines in hippocampus CA1 area are by Golgi silver staining. Thereafter we detect the level of Aβ1–40 and Aβ1–42 in hippocampus and in cortex by ELISA. In addition, western blotting was used for further understanding the effects of geniposide and PNS combination in APP/PS1 transgenic mice. Results We found that the ratio of Aβ1−42 / Aβ1−40 in both cortex and hippocampus was significantly decreased under the treatment; secondly, the combination significantly increased dendrite spine density in hippocampus CA1 areas, and increased the protein level of PSD-95 (synaptic function-related protein in post-synapse). Conclusion These results indicated that geniposide and PNS combination modulated Aβ production and synaptic plasticity in the early stage of AD processing.