Shikimic Acid Promotes Oligodendrocyte Precursor Cell Differentiation and Accelerates Remyelination in Mice

Overview

Journal Neurosci Bull

Specialty Neurology

Date 2019 Jan 27

PMID 30684125

Citations 10

Authors

Fengfeng Lu

Dou Yin

Yingyan Pu

Weili Liu

Zhenghao Li

Qi Shao

Cheng He

Li Cao

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The obstacle to successful remyelination in demyelinating diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, mainly lies in the inability of oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) to differentiate, since OPCs and oligodendrocyte-lineage cells that are unable to fully differentiate are found in the areas of demyelination. Thus, promoting the differentiation of OPCs is vital for the treatment of demyelinating diseases. Shikimic acid (SA) is mainly derived from star anise, and is reported to have anti-influenza, anti-oxidation, and anti-tumor effects. In the present study, we found that SA significantly promoted the differentiation of cultured rat OPCs without affecting their proliferation and apoptosis. In mice, SA exerted therapeutic effects on experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), such as alleviating clinical EAE scores, inhibiting inflammation, and reducing demyelination in the CNS. SA also promoted the differentiation of OPCs as well as their remyelination after lysolecithin-induced demyelination. Furthermore, we showed that the promotion effect of SA on OPC differentiation was associated with the up-regulation of phosphorylated mTOR. Taken together, our results demonstrated that SA could act as a potential drug candidate for the treatment of demyelinating diseases.

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