Momordica charantia polysaccharides could protect against cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury through inhibiting oxidative stress mediated c-Jun N-terminal kinase 3 signaling pathway.

Momordica charantia polysaccharides could protect against cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury through inhibiting oxidative stress mediated c-Jun N-terminal kinase 3 signaling pathway. Neuropharmacology. 2014 Dec 12; Authors: Gong J, Sun F, Li Y, Zhou X, Duan Z, Duan F, Zhao L, Chen H, Qi S, Shen J Abstract Momordica charantia (MC) is a medicinal plant for stroke treatment in Traditional Chinese Medicine, but its active compounds and molecular targets are unknown yet. Momordica charantia polysaccharide (MCP) is one of the important bioactive components in MC. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that MCP has neuroprotective effects against cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury through scavenging superoxide (O2(-)), nitric oxide (NO) and peroxynitrite (ONOO(-)) and inhibiting c-Jun N-terminal protein kinase (JNK3) signaling cascades. We conducted experiments with in vivo global and focal cerebral ischemia/reperfusion rat models and in vitro oxygen glucose deprivation (OGD) neural cells. The effects of MCP on apoptotic cell death and infarction volume, the bioactivities of scavenging O2(-), NO and ONOO(-), inhibiting lipid peroxidation and modulating JNK3 signaling pathway were investigated. Major results are summarized as below: (1) MCP dose-dependently attenuated apoptotic cell death in neural cells under OGD condition in vitro and reduced infarction volume in ischemic brains in vivo; (2) MCP had directing scavenging effects...
Source: Neuropharmacology - Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Authors: Tags: Neuropharmacology Source Type: research