hyperforin and Brain-Injuries

Hyperforin, a pharmacologically active component of the medicinal plant Hypericum perforatum (St. John's wort), has been shown to be neuroprotective against acute ischemic stroke. However, the underlying mechanisms are still unclear and need to be fully elucidated. C57BL/6 wildtype (WT) mice or interleukin (IL)-17A knock-out mice were subjected to middle cerebral artery occlusion (60min) followed by reperfusion for 72h. Hyperforin (0.5μg) was injected slowly into the right ventricle of WT mice 1, 24 and 48h after middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) onset. Here, we found that hyperforin treatment decreased the mRNA and protein expression of IL-17A at 72h after MCAO onset. Hyperforin reduced infarct volumes and increased neurologic scores accompanied by a decrease in microglial activation and a shift from M1 to M2 phenotypes in the peri-infarct striatum. Furthermore, we revealed that IL-17A was essential to the microglial activation in the acute phase of ischemic stroke. IL-17A knock-out (il-17a

Topics: Animals; Brain Infarction; Brain Injuries; Cytokines; Disease Models, Animal; Exploratory Behavior; Gene Expression Regulation; Infarction, Middle Cerebral Artery; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; Interleukin-17; Male; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Mice, Transgenic; Microglia; Neuroprotective Agents; Phloroglucinol; Proprioception; Statistics, Nonparametric; Terpenes