Glycyrrhizic Acid Improves Cognitive Levels of Aging Mice by Regulating T/B Cell Proliferation
Ruichan Jiang, Jiaming Gao, Junyan Shen, Xiaoqi Zhu, Hao Wang, Shengyu Feng, Ce Huang, Haitao Shen, Hailiang Liu
Abstract
Glycyrrhizic acid (GA) is the substance with the highest content of triterpenoid saponins that can be extracted from licorice, and has anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, and anticancer functions, among others. The aim of this study was to investigate the protective effect of GA on cognitive decline in middle-aged mice and explore its mechanisms. We injected GA by the tail vein of C57BL/6 mice and measured their cognitive levels using the Morris water maze. The Morris water maze results demonstrated that GA improved learning and memory abilities in middle-aged mice. Furthermore, the RNA-sequencing and flow cytometric analyses revealed that GA could increase T and B cells. We then confirmed the relationship between cognition and the immune system in the immune-deficient B-NDG mouse model. Our results suggest that GA improves cognition in aging mice by regulating T/B cell proliferation.