The administration of D-galactose triggers brain aging by poorly understood mechanisms. It is generally recognized that D-galactose induces oxidative stress or affects protein modifications via receptors for advanced glycated end products in a variety of species. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the involvement of astrocytes in D-galactose-induced brain aging in vitro. We found that D-galactose treatment significantly suppressed cell viability and induced cellular senescence. In addition, as of the accumulation of senescent cells, we proposed that the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) can stimulate age-related pathologies and chemoresistance in brain. Consistently, senescent astrocytic CRT cells induced by D-galactose exhibited increases in the levels of IL-6 and IL-8 via NF-κB activation, which are major SASP components and inflammatory cytokines. Conditioned medium prepared from senescent astrocytic CRT cells significantly promoted the viability of brain tumor cells (U373-MG and N2a). Importantly, conditioned medium greatly suppressed the cytotoxicity of U373-MG cells induced by temozolomide, and reduced the protein expression levels of neuron marker neuron-specific class III β-tubulin, but markedly increased the levels of c-Myc in N2a cells. Thus, our findings demonstrated that D-galactose treatment might mimic brain aging, and that D-galactose could contribute to brain inflammation and tumor progression through inducing the accumulation of senescent-secretory astrocytes.

The anthracycline antibiotic doxorubicin is commonly used antineoplastic drug in breast cancer treatment. Like most chemotherapy, doxorubicin does not selectively target tumorigenic cells with high proliferation rate and often causes serve side effects. In the present study, we demonstrated the cellular senescence and senescence associated secretory phenotype (SASP) of both breast tumor cell MDA-MB-231 and normal epithelial cell MCF-10A induced by clinical dose of doxorubicin (100 nM). Senescence was confirmed by flattened morphology, increased level of beta galactose, accumulating contents of lysosome and mitochondrial, and elevated expression of p16 and p21 proteins. Similarly, SASP was identified by highly secreted proteins IL-6, IL-8, GRO, GM-CSF, MCP-1, and MMP1 by antibody array assay. Reciprocal experiments, determined by cell proliferation and apoptosis assays and cell migration and cell invasion, indicated that SASP of MDA-MB-231 cell induces growth arrest of MCF-10A, whereas SASP of MCF-10A significantly stimulates the proliferation of MDA-MB-231. Interestingly, SASP from both cells powerfully promotes the cell migration and cell invasion of MDA-MB-231 cells. Treatment with the natural product ginsenoside Rh2 does not prevent cellular senescence or exert senolytic. However, SASP from senescent cells treated with Rh2 greatly attenuated the above-mentioned bystander effect. Altogether, Rh2 is a potential candidate to ameliorate this unwanted chemotherapy-induced senescence bystander effect.

s Background Herbal medicines are popular approaches to capably prevent and treat obesity and its related diseases. Excessive exposure to dietary lipids causes oxidative stress and inflammation, which possibly induces cellular senescence and contribute the damaging effects in brain. The potential roles of selective enhanced ginsenoside in regulating high fat diet (HFD)-induced brain damage remain unknown. Methods The protection function of Ginsenoside F1-enhanced mixture (SGB121) was evaluated by in vivo and in vitro experiments. Human primary astrocytes and SH-SY5Y cells were treated with palmitic acid conjugated Bovine Serum Albumin, and the effects of SGB121 were determined by MTT and lipid uptake assays. For in vivo tests, C57BL/6J mice were fed with high fat diet for 3 months with or without SGB121 administration. Thereafter, immunohistochemistry, western blot, PCR and ELISA assays were conducted with brain tissues. Results and conclusion SGB121 selectively suppressed HFD-induced oxidative stress and cellular senescence in brain, and reduced subsequent inflammation responses manifested by abrogated secretion of IL-6, IL-1β and TNFα via NF-κB signaling pathway. Interestingly, SGB121 protects against HFD-induced damage by improving mitophagy and endoplasmic reticulum-stress associated autophagy flux and inhibiting apoptosis. In addition, SGB121 regulates lipid uptake and accumulation by FATP4 and PPARα. SGB121 significantly abates excessively phosphorylated tau protein in the cortex and GFAP activation in corpus callosum. Together, our results suggest that SGB121 is able to favor the resistance of brain to HFD-induced damage, therefore provide explicit evidence of the potential to be a functional food.

Ginsenoside F1, the metabolite of Rg1, is one of the most important constituents of Panax ginseng. Although the effects of ginsenosides on amyloid beta (Aβ) aggregation in the brain are known, the role of ginsenoside F1 remains unclear. Here, we investigated the protective effect of ginsenoside F1 against Aβ aggregation in vivo and in vitro. Treatment with 2.5 μM ginsenoside F1 reduced Aβ-induced cytotoxicity by decreasing Aβ aggregation in mouse neuroblastoma neuro-2a (N2a) and human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y neuronal cell lines. Western blotting, real-time PCR, and siRNA analysis revealed an increased level of insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE) and neprilysin (NEP). Furthermore, liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis confirmed that ginsenoside F1 could pass the blood–brain barrier within 2 h after administration. Immunostaining results indicate that ginsenoside F1 reduces Aβ plaques in the hippocampus of APPswe/PSEN1dE9 (APP/PS1) double-transgenic Alzheimer’s disease (AD) mice. Consistently, increased levels of IDE and NEP protein and mRNA were observed after the 8-week administration of 10 mg/kg/d ginsenoside F1. These data indicate that ginsenoside F1 is a promising therapeutic candidate for AD.

Clinical dose of doxorubicin (100 nM) induced cellular senescence and various secretory phenotypes in breast cancer and normal epithelial cells. Herein, we reported the detailed mechanism underlying ginsenoside Rh2‐mediated NF‐κB inhibition, and mitophagy promotion were evaluated by antibody array assay, western blotting analysis, and immunocytostaining. Ginsenoside Rh2 suppressed the protein levels of TRAF6, p62, phosphorylated IKK, and IκB, which consequently inactivated NF‐κB activity. Rh2‐mediated secretory phenotype was delineated by the suppressed IL‐8 secretion. Senescent epithelial cells showed increased level of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which was significantly abrogated by Rh2, with upregulation on SIRT 3 and SIRT 5 and subsequent increase in SOD1 and SOD2. Rh2 remarkably favored mitophagy by the increased expressions of PINK1 and Parkin and decreased level of PGC‐1α. A decreased secretion of IL‐8 challenged by mitophagy inhibitor Mdivi‐1 with an NF‐κB luciferase system was confirmed. Importantly, secretory senescent epithelial cells promoted the breast cancer (MCF‐7) proliferation while decreased the survival of normal epithelial cells demonstrated by co‐culture system, which was remarkably alleviated by ginsenoside Rh2 treatment. These data included ginsenoside Rh2 regulated ROS and mitochondrial autophagy, which were in large part attributed to secretory phenotype of senescent breast epithelial cells induced by doxorubicin. These findings also suggested that ginsenoside Rh2 is a potential treatment candidate for the attenuation of aging related disease.