Huperzine A for Alzheimer's disease

作者：Jun Li, Hong Mei Wu, Rongle Zhou, Guan Jian Liu, Bi Rong Dong · 发表于：Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · 年份：2008 · DOI：10.1002/14651858.cd005592.pub2 · 被引用次数：107 · 研究领域：Cholinesterase and Neurodegenerative Diseases、Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors Study、Medicinal Plants and Neuroprotection

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's disease (AD) has become a major public health problem around the world due to its increasing prevalence, long duration, caregiver burden, and high financial cost of care. The degeneration of acetylcholine-containing neurons in the basal forebrain has been implicated in the symptoms of AD. Cholinesterase inhibitors may block the degradation of acetylcholine, thus increasing the efficacy of the remaining cholinergic neurons. Huperzine A is a linearly competitive, reversible inhibitor of acetyl cholinesterase that is said to have both central and peripheral activity with the ability to protect cells against hydrogen peroxide, beta-amyloid protein (or peptide), glutamate, ischemia and staurosporine-induced cytotoxicity and apoptosis. These properties might qualify Huperzine A as a promising agent for treating dementia (including AD). OBJECTIVES: To assess the efficacy and safety of Huperzine A for the treatment of patients with AD. SEARCH STRATEGY: The Specialized Register of the Cochrane Dementia and Cognitive Improvement Group was searched on 1 February 2006 using the search term: huperzin*. The CDCIG Specialized register contains records from all major health care databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, SIGLE, ISTP, INSIDE, LILACS) as well as from many trials databases and grey literature sources. In addition, the CBM and AMED databases and relevant websites were searched and some journals were hand-searched. Specialists in the field were approach...