Ginsenoside C-K inhibits Aβ oligomer-induced Alzheimer's disease pathology progression by regulating microglia-neuron interactions.

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder. Current therapeutic agents primarily focus on symptom alleviation and fail to effectively halt disease progression. Therefore, there is a need to develop novel therapeutic strategies, particularly those involving natural active compounds with multi-target actions. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the intervention effects and multi-target regulatory mechanisms of Ginsenoside C-K (GCK) on β-amyloid (Aβ) oligomer-induced Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathological progression. METHODS: BV2 microglia and HT22 neurons were used as in vitro models. Cell viability was measured via CCK-8 assay, cell migration ability assessed by scratch assay, and apoptosis rate analyzed using Annexin V/PI dual staining. A conditioned medium (CM) strategy was employed to validate microglia-neuron interactions. Western blot was performed to detect key NF-κB signaling pathway proteins (p-IκBα, p-p65) and inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β). RESULTS: GCK pretreatment significantly ameliorated Aβ₁₋₄₂ oligomer-induced BV2 cell dysfunction (viability recovery rate >80 %, p < 0.01), suppressed pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion (TNF-α reduced by 62.3 %, IL-1β by 57.8 %), and inhibited NF-κB pathway activation (p-IκBα/p-p65 expression downregulated >50 %). In HT22 neurons, GCK directly counteracted Aβ toxicity (apoptosis rate decreased from 38.7 % to 15.2 %) and exerted indirect neuroprotection by modulating microglia-derived conditioned medium (CM2 group showed a 2.1-fold increase in neuronal viability compared to CM1). CONCLUSION: GCK mitigates AD pathology through dual mechanisms-direct inhibition of Aβ neurotoxicity and indirect regulation of microglial homeostasis-with NF-κB signaling suppression as a core mechanism. This study provides new experimental evidence for natural product-based multi-target AD therapies, though further animal studies are required to validate its in vivo efficacy and safety.