Neuroprotective Effect and Mechanisms of Notoginsenosides：A Review / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ABSTRACT

Notoginsenosides， the saponins extracted from Panax notoginseng， have many pharmacological effects， such as anti-inflammation， anti-oxidation， anti-tumor， nervous system and cardiovascular system protection， microcirculation improvement and calcium overload inhibition. At present， notoginsenosides are widely used clinically for treating many diseases with good efficacy， especially for nervous system diseases such as stroke， stroke sequelae and Alzheimer's disease. In recent years， the mechanism underlying their neuroprotective effect has been continuously explored. To advance the applied research on notoginsenosides in the prevention and treatment of central nervous system diseases， this paper， combined with the latest reports， summarizes their neuroprotective effect and mechanisms in terms of regulating voltage-gated ion channels， protecting nerve cells and neurovascular unit， inhibiting oxidative stress and inflammatory reaction， promoting angiogenesis and reducing excitatory neurotoxicity. Although the protective mechanism of notoginsenosides for the nervous system mainly involves the above several aspects， some of them still remain to be fully elucidated， which necessitates the further exploration of neuroprotective effect of notoginsenosides with molecular biology， metabolomics， proteomics and other technologies.