A Preliminary Finding: N-butyl-phthalide Plays a Neuroprotective Role by Blocking the TLR4/HMGB1 Pathway and Improves Mild Cognitive Impairment Induced by Acute Cerebral Infarction.

Background: Most acute cerebral infarctions (ACI) may develop vascular dementia (VD), which involves almost all types of cognitive impairment. Unfortunately, there is currently no effective treatment for VD. Most patients exhibit mild cognitive impairment (MCI) before the development of VD. N-butyl-phthalide (NBP) is used to treat ACI and improve cognitive function. The oxygen and glucose deprivation (OGD) model of neurons is an in vitro model of ischemia, hypoxia, and cognitive dysfunction.

Methods: We conducted clinical studies and in vitro experiments to investigate the clinical efficacy and mechanism of action of NBP for treating ACI-induced MCI. Patients with ACI-induced MCI were randomly divided into control (Ctrl) and NBP groups. We assessed various indicators, such as clinical efficacy, montreal cognitive assessment scale (MOCA), activities of daily living (ADL), and cerebral infarct size in both groups before and after treatment. We observed the morphology of neurons and detected the survival rate, action potentials (APs), expression of high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and the interaction between TLR4 and HMGB1.

Results: The MOCA and ADL scores increased significantly after treatment in the NBP group. A OGD model of neurons was established, and the neurons were divided into Ctrl and NBP groups. We observed that the survival rate and APs amplitude of the neurons were significantly increased in the NBP group, whereas TNF-α expression was decreased. Furthermore, the interaction between TLR4 and HMGB1 decreased in the NBP group.

Conclusion: NBP plays a neuroprotective role by inhibiting the TLR4/HMGB1 pathway and ameliorating ACI-induced MCI.