November 27, 2024

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A photo of red ginseng, used in the research for Alzheimer's disease. (KGC)

Korea Ginseng Corp., the country's leading ginseng manufacturer, said Wednesday that a collaborative research team supported by KGC and Konyang University has found a potential mechanism to reduce cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease in red ginseng polysaccharides.

Alzheimer's is the most common type of dementia, which occurs when amyloid beta, a proposed cause of Alzheimer's, aggregates and accumulates in the brain.

Konyang University’s Research Institute for Dementia Science, led by professor Moon Min-ho, and Korea Ginseng Corporation's Research Institute team, led by Lee Yong-yook, announced in the international scientific journal Free Radical Biology and Medicine in 2021 that red ginseng polysaccharide inhibits amyloid beta aggregation.

How red ginseng polysaccharides do this was not fully clarified due to a lack of research two years ago. However, the mechanism that red ginseng polysaccharides are related to synaptic and mitochondrial pathways in Alzheimer's disease was identified in this year’s research.

The research team divided a total of 18 mice into three groups and conducted a proteomics analysis of the brain diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. With an analysis of the protein-protein interaction of 111 proteins significantly changed by injecting red ginseng polysaccharide, the research team found that the protein interaction decreased significantly in mice injected with red ginseng.

Bioinformatics analysis confirmed that these proteins play an important role in nerve and synaptic development and function related to Alzheimer's disease, contributing to the preservation of mitochondrial forms.

"This study is meaningful because it has confirmed the possibility of red ginseng polysaccharides as candidates for effective treatments of Alzheimer's disease in animal models,” said Moon Min-ho, a professor at the College of Medicine at Konyang University.

By Kim So-yeon (sera13@heraldcorp.com)