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Synergistic Inhibition on Acetylcholinesterase by the Combination of Berberine and Palmatine Originally Isolated from Chinese Medicinal Herbs

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Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease is a multi-factorial neurodegenerative disorder devastatingly affecting the aged population worldwide. Previous studies have shown that medicinal herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine might be benefit to Alzheimer’s disease patients. Berberine and palmatine, two isoquinoline alkaloids found in several medicinal herbs, were used for memory enhancement in China. In this study, the inhibitory effects of combined berberine and palmatine on acetylcholinesteras were evaluated using recombinant human acetylcholinesterase. Our results showed that the combination of berberine and palmatine inhibited acetylcholinesterase in a mixed competitive pattern. By the median-effect principle, the calculated combination index of the combination was less than 1, suggesting that berberine and plamatine inhibited acetylcholinesterase synergistically. Furthermore, the drug-reducing index of berberine and palmatine were 2.98 and 2.66, respectively. Taken together, the results showed that the combination of the two alkaloids might potentially be developed as a more effective therapeutic strategy for Alzheimer’s disease patients.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council Theme-based Research Scheme (T13-607/12R), GRF (661110, 662911, 660411, 663012, 662713), TUYF12SC03, The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust and Foundation of The Awareness of Nature (TAON12SC01) to Karl Tsim. Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (PolyU5609/09 M and PolyU5610/11 M), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (G-YM32, G-YZ15 and G-UC15), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81202510) to Yifan HAN.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Life Science, Center for Chinese Medicine and State Key Laboratory of Molecular Neuroscience, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay Road, Hong Kong, China

    Shinghung Mak, Wilson W. K. Luk & Karl W. K. Tsim

  2. Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, SAR, China

    Shinghung Mak, Wei Cui, Shengquan Hu & Yifan Han

  3. State Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine and Molecular Pharmacology (Incubation), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Shenzhen Research Institute, Shenzhen, China

    Wei Cui, Shengquan Hu & Yifan Han

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  1. Shinghung Mak
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  2. Wilson W. K. Luk
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  3. Wei Cui
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  4. Shengquan Hu
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  5. Karl W. K. Tsim
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  6. Yifan Han
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Correspondence to Yifan Han.

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Mak, S., Luk, W.W.K., Cui, W. et al. Synergistic Inhibition on Acetylcholinesterase by the Combination of Berberine and Palmatine Originally Isolated from Chinese Medicinal Herbs. J Mol Neurosci 53, 511–516 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12031-014-0288-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12031-014-0288-5

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