Scientists aimed to investigate the effects and potential mechanisms underlying the action of Shenqi Fuzheng Injection (a Chinese traditional medicine) on a well-established transgenic mouse model of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
Shenqi Fuzheng Injection (SFI) is concocted from two kinds of Chinese medicinal herbs, Radix Codonopsis (the root of Codonopsis pilosula; Chinese name: Dangshen) and Radix Astragali (the root of Astragalus; Chinese name: Huangqi).
It is a drug approved by the State Food and Drug Administration of the People’s Republic of China primarily as an antitumor auxiliary injection and marketed in China by Livzon Pharmaceutical Group Inc.
Transgenic SOD1-G93A mice were intraperitoneally injected with SFI three times a week from 87 days of age.
Motor function, survival, pathological manifestations in the brain, and Nrf2 pathway-related assessments of the mice were performed.
SFI marginally reduced motor neuron loss and astrocytic activation in the motor cortex of the brain of SOD1-G93A mice at 130 days of age.
There was a decrease of the level of malondialdehyde and an increase of the levels of superoxide dismutase, Nrf2, heme oxygenase-1, and glutathione S-transferase in the SOD1-G93A mice.
The SFI treatment did not significantly extended the overall survival but improved the pathological manifestations of the brain alleviating the oxydative stress injury and activating the Nrf2 pathway in the animal model of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.