Talaumidin, a tetrahydrofuran neolignan isolated from the root of Aristolochia arcuata , was shown to be an intriguing small molecule with neurotrophic activity in the primary culture of rat cortical neurons. Talaumidin can promote both dendrite-like and axon-like process outgrowth of cultured rat cortical neurons at the concentration range of 1 - 30 μM. Additionally, in the trophic withdrawal model, it can protect cell death caused by the deprivation of serum at the concentration range of 3 - 30 μM. These data suggest the potential of talaumidin to serve as a promising lead compound for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Abbreviations bFGF:human recombinant basic fibroblast growth factor MTT:thiazolyl blue tetrazolium bromide MAP2:microtubule-associated protein 2 tau:tau protein, one of microtubule-associated proteins DMEM:Dulbecco’s modified Eagle medium IgG:immunoglobulin G
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Zhai et al. (2004) studied this question.