Gingko extract may provide clues to curing Alzheimer's disease
Washington, August 23 : Scientists at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy
have begun a new study to investigate how a certain extract from leaves of the ancient
eastern tree, Ginkgo biloba, ease symptoms of memory loss in patients with Alzheimer's
disease.
The researchers say that understanding the biochemical workings of the ginkgo extract
called Egb 761 may be helpful in expanding treatment options for other medical
conditions.
Associate Professor Yuan Luo thinks that the combination of separate actions by the
Ginkgo extract, common in herbal remedies, may be the key to its effectiveness.
The researcher says that ongoing research has thus far shown that the administration of
the extract to mice with the human Alzheimer's gene improved the process of making new
nerve cells in part of the brain much affected by the disease.
The study found evidence that the protective effect of the extract could also be due to
decreasing senile plaques or the clumping of beta-amyloid in the brain tissues.
Luo, whose study has shown that the Ginkgo extract in the hippocampus enhances the
making of nerve cells and decreased clumping in brain tissue, says that finding out how it
works might help drug discovery researchers and doctors learn how other herbal and
conventional drugs work on in multiple ways.
She says that when herbal medicines are effective, it is often because of a synergy of
different biological effects.
She feels that drugs that target multiple sites would be most efficacious because
Alzheimer's disease is caused by multiple factors, not just one thing that has gone
wrong.
Luo says that her study provides a rationale for future medicinal chemistry, and for
identifying other potentially efficacious compounds with desirable activity as potential
therapeutic agents to prevent and/or treat Alzheimer's disease.
Her team is also analysing data from a five-year clinical trial to determine whether
medicine made from Ginkgo biloba can prevent or delay changes in memory, thinking, and
personality as people get older.
While disease prevention theories associated with herbal medicine have the potential to
both increase quality of life and reduce health care costs, ways that extracts of herbs
work in the body are still poorly understood, she says.
Ends VC
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--ANI
