Source: Zhongshan School of Medicine
Written by: Zhongshan School of Medicine
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

Prof. Guangmei Yan’s group of Zhongshan School of Medicine published a latest research about the neuroprotection of endogenous small molecule cholestane-3β, 5α, 6β-triol (triol) in The Journal of Neuroscience on August 20, 2014 (Haiyan Hu, Yuehan Zhou, and Tiandong Leng are co-first authors).

Ischemic stroke is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide, with few if any effective therapies. Prof. Yan’s group has discovered that triol, a major metabolite of cholesterol, is an endogenous neuroprotectant and protects against neuronal injury both in vitro (spinal cord neurons, cerebellar granule neurons, and cortical neurons) and in vivo (spinal cord ischemia in rabbits and transient focal cerebral ischemia in rats) via negative modulation of NMDA receptors. These results show that metabolites of cholesterol may form an endogenous neuroprotectant system. They have also found that natural Calculus Bovis, a traditional Chinese medicine for stroke therapy, contains triol at therapeutic dose. Therefore, it is reasonable to believe that the neuroprotective material basis of Calculus Bovis may be triol and its derivatives.

These findings have shed light on illustrating the endogenous neuroprotective mechanism, identifying the effective ingredients of natural Calculus Bovis, and developing potential therapeutics for disorders in the CNS. Based on the research above, Prof. Yan’s group has finished the preclinical study of a national class 1.1 new drug, which is expected to enter a clinical trial within a year.

The link of this article on The Journal of Neuroscience’s website:
www.jneurosci.org/content/34/34/11426.long