alpha-asarone and tenuigenin

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a slowly progressive neurodegenerative disease which cannot be cured at present. The aim of this study was to assess whether the combined application of β-asarone and tenuigenin could improve the efficacy of memantine in treating moderate-to-severe AD.. One hundred and fifty-two patients with moderate-to-severe AD were recruited and assigned to two groups. Patients in the experiment group received β-asarone 10 mg/d, tenuigenin 10 mg/d, and memantine 5-20 mg/d. Patients in the control group only received memantine 5-20 mg/d. The Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), Clinical Dementia Rating Scale (CDR), and Activities of Daily Living (ADL) were used to assess the therapeutic effects. The drug-related adverse events were used to assess the safety and acceptability. Treatment was continued for 12 weeks.. After 12 weeks of treatment, the average MMSE scores, ADL scores, and CDR scores in the two groups were significantly improved. But, compared to the control group, the experimental group had a significantly higher average MMSE score (. These results demonstrated that the combined application of β-asarone and tenuigenin could improve the efficacy of memantine in treating moderate-to-severe AD. The clinical applicability of this novel method showed greater promise and should be further explored.

Topics: Activities of Daily Living; Aged; Allylbenzene Derivatives; Alzheimer Disease; Anisoles; Drug Therapy, Combination; Drugs, Chinese Herbal; Humans; Male; Memantine; Middle Aged; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Severity of Illness Index; Treatment Outcome

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that has no cure at present. This study was carried out to evaluate whether the combination of β-asarone and tenuigenin could improve the efficacy of memantine as a monotherapy in the treatment of AD. Patients with AD were recruited and assigned to two groups. Patients in the control group received memantine (5-20 mg/day) and those in the experimental group received memantine (5-20 mg/day), β-asarone (20 mg/day), and tenuigenin (20 mg/day). The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Activities of Daily Living (ADL), Clinical Dementia Rating Scale (CDR) scores and drug-related side-effects were assessed. Treatment was continued for 12 weeks. In total, 93 AD patients (45 in the control group and 48 in the experimental group) were recruited. Before treatment, both the groups had similar average MMSE scores, ADL scores, and CDR scores, whereas all the average scores improved significantly after treatment. However, compared with the control group, the experimental group had a significantly higher average MMSE score (P=0.00001) and lower average ADL (P=0.00604) and CDR (P=0.00776) scores after treatment. Moreover, the two groups had similar rates of drug-related side-effects. These results indicated that the combination of β-asarone and tenuigenin was an effective augmentation for memantine in the treatment of AD and did not cause more drug-related side-effects. This novel method is worthy of further investigation.

Topics: Activities of Daily Living; Aged; Allylbenzene Derivatives; Alzheimer Disease; Anisoles; Cognition; Drug Therapy, Combination; Drugs, Chinese Herbal; Female; Humans; Male; Memantine; Nootropic Agents; Treatment Outcome