Abstract:
Wnt signaling pathway includes Wnt/β-catenin classical pathway, Wnt/PCP and Wnt/Ca
2+ non-classical pathway, which can regulate many processes such as neuronal growth, development, maturation, differentiation, proliferation, are closely related to the occurrence, development and prevention of the senile dementia. At present, there have many reports on the prevention and treatment of senile dementia by regulating Wnt signaling pathway with traditional Chinese medicine(TCM), but there is still a lack of summary analysis. This paper has synthesized the research results in recent domestic and international literatures which on the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease, Vascular dementia and other senile dementia with the effective ingredients such as epimedium, ginseng, turmeric, saffron, salvia miltiorrhiza, amber, as well as with the compounds such as Hei Xiaoyaosan, Dihang compound, Dabuyuan jian, Huangjing pill and Yangxue Qingnao granule. It has found that these herbals or TCM compounds with the effects of tonifying kidney or activating blood, etc, can both activate Wnt-related signaling pathways in the brain of senile dementia animals, and play a role in multi-target prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease and Vascular dementia. Therefore, the regulation of Wnt signaling pathway in the brain of patients can be used as one of the important strategies of TCM for anti the senile dementia, and its research and development can focus on the screening of herbals or Chinese herbal compound with such effects.