Visnagin (4-methoxy-7-methyl-5H-furo[3,2-g][1]-benzopyran-5-one), which is an active principle extracted from the fruits of Ammi visnaga, has been used as a treatment for low blood-pressure and blocked blood vessel contraction by inhibition of calcium influx into blood cells. However, the neuroprotective effect of visnagin was not clearly known until now. Thus, we investigated whether visnagin ...

in the mammalian, there are three ncx genes (ncx1, ncx2, ncx3), which their three proteins are differentially expressed in distinct regions of the central nervous system, where they might underlie different physiological and pathophysiological functions. ncx is a nine-transmembrane protein which is distributed in the brain widely. ncx operates in a bidirectional way, and exchanges ca2+ and na+ ...

The opening of the adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-sensitive potassium (KATP) channel has been proposed as a therapeutic approach for ischemia. Here we examined the opening effect of KR-31378 on the KATP channel using patch clamp recording in neuroblastoma 2a (N2a) cells and investigated the neuroprotective effect of KR-31378 in organotypic hippocampal slice cultures exposed to oxygen/glucose depr...

Neurodegenerative diseases affect millions of individuals worldwide. It has been estimated that the number of patients affected by neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), Huntington’s disease (HD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), stroke and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) will increase over time, due to the growing size of the elderly population ...

istone deacetylases (HDACs) are enzymes that deacetylate histones, but also act on certain non-histone substrates. Class III HDACs, which are known as sirtuins, catalyze deacetylation of the acetyl-lysine residues of histones using nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) as a cofactor. Silent information regulator 2 (Sir2) was the first gene of the sirtuin family to be discovered. Sir2 shows a...

background and objective: sensory neurons have critical role in improvement of functional outcome of any neuroprotective strategy. the herbal medicine nepeta menthoides has been reported to have anti-apoptotic effect on axotomized spinal motoneurons. in the present study, the putative neuroprotective effect of nepeta menthoides on the axotomized dorsal root ganglion sensory neurons in neonate r...

apoptosis plays an important role in many pathological processes of the central nervous system. the neuroprotective effect of periodic fasting (pf) in contrast to severe fasting or starvation has been suggested. however, these beneficial effects seem to depend on the type and duration of the used feeding protocol. this study was designed to evaluate the effects of different pf protocols on the ...