Comparison of Neurogenesis Promotion Effects between\nCinnamoylquinic Acids in Neural Stem Cells from Adult Mice Brains

Caffeoylquinic acids\n(CQAs) and feruloylquinic acids (FQAs), as\ncinnamoylquinic acids, have neurogenesis promotion effects. We studied\nfor the first time the neurogenesis-enhancing effect of 3,4,5-tri-feruloylquinic\nacid (TFQA) compared to 3,4,5-tri-caffeoylquinic acid (TCQA), which\nhas a similar structure, and explored their different cellular and\nmolecular mechanisms in neural stem cells (NSCs) of mice brains. After\n2 weeks of incubation, we first assessed the number and size of NSCs\nin TCQA and TFQA treatments. In NSCs treated for TCQA and TFQA, the\nNSC proliferation gene expression as well as neuronal and glial cell\ndifferentiation gene expressions improved. In the microarray assay,\nthe erythroblastic oncogene B (ErbB) signaling pathway, as the common\nsignaling of TCQA and TFQA treatments, was focused on and discussed.\nIn our study, TCQA and TFQA treatments in NSCs showed a significant\nperformance on improving synapse growth and neurogenesis compared\nwith no treatment of NSCs. The two treatments in NSCs also had a significant\nactivation of the ErbB signaling pathway, protein kinase B (AKT),\nand mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) kinases. In particular,\nthe TCQA-expressed proliferation gene myelocytomatosis oncogene (<i>Myc</i>) had the greatest connections significantly. TFQA treatment\nremarkably regulated the differentiation gene jun proto-oncogene (<i>Jun</i>), which was the gene with greatest direct relations,\nwhile <i>Myc</i> was also induced in TFQA treatment. In\nthe overall quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR)\nassay, TFQA had more outstanding neural proliferation and differentiation\ncapabilities than TCQA in NSCs. Our study suggests that TFQA has greater\ntherapeutic potential in neurogenesis promotion and neurodegenerative\ndiseases compared with TCQA.