16 Jun 2010

A study previously featured on Alzforum as part of a report on the first Beijing Symposium on Aging and Neurodegeneration today appears in the scientific literature. Back in 2008, Ying Peng, now at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in Beijing, presented his ongoing research on the neuroprotective compound DL-3-n-Butylphthalide. DL-NBP is a synthetic compound made to imitate an active component of Chinese celery seed extract (Apium graveolens).

Chinese celery. Image credit: Rasbak on Wikimedia Commons

Peng had started this research as a postdoc in the lab of Cynthia Lemere at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston. In today’s Journal of Neuroscience, Peng reports full data of this Beijing talk. In short, the paper reports that DL-NBP improved a range of outcome measures in a triple transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer disease, possibly by shifting APP cleavage toward a non-amyloidogenic pathway. Based on additional effects on oxidative stress and gliosis in this study, and on neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory effects reported in previous studies on different experimental systems of neurodegeneration, the authors suggest that DL-NBP deserves more investigation as a potential multi-target therapeutic—in short, a good sort of “dirty” drug.—Gabrielle Strobel.