TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a composition for improving cognitive ability, and preventing or treating dementia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which comprises aGalla rhoisextract and fraxin as active ingredients.

BACKGROUND ART

The decline in cognitive ability, that is, memory loss, due to dementia may be referred to as a “syndrome” in which temporary or continuous damage to cranial nerves, which mainly occur due to medical or neurological causes, results in remarkable difficulty in maintaining social and daily life.

Alzheimer's disease accounts for the majority of patients with dementia. The pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease is not yet clearly identified, but the toxicity of a neurotoxic protein (β-amyloid protein) deposited in a brain lesion is suggested as the most important cause.

Alzheimer's disease and cerebrovascular dementia caused by extensive brain lesions generated after stroke or due to cerebral arteriosclerosis accounts for approximately 90% of dementia diseases.

Dementia patients exhibit significant hypofunction of various neurotransmitters mainly in the cerebral cortex and limbic system and hypofunction of cerebral energy metabolism, and particularly, in the case of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the hypofunction of acetylcholine (ACh), glutamic acid, neuropeptide and monoamine neurotransmission systems was exhibited in patients, assuming that the dysfunction of these neurotransmission systems is the main cause of AD.

In addition, from the aspect of the neurocytotoxic action induced by a 3-amyloid peptide, the onset mechanism mediated by detachment of hippocampal nerve cells through extracellular deposition of β-amyloid peptides in senile plaques is also assumed as one of the main causes of AD.

Currently, the treatment of dementia aims to lower progression by early diagnosis of symptoms, and there is no drug that can inhibit or prevent the progression of dementia at the present stage. While there are Cogne (Parke-Davis), Aricept (Eisai & Pfizer), Exellon (Novartis) and Ebixa (Lundbeck), which are products having been approved by the U.S. FDA and available on the market, these drugs except Ebixa only contribute to alleviation of some of the symptoms generated by AD (to increase the concentration of a neurotransmitter, i,e, acetylcholine, and its degradation enzyme, i.e., acetylcholine exterase are inhibited) and reassuring patients and their caregivers.

These AChE inhibitory drugs are most effective when the cholinergic nerve is not functionally damaged, and since their efficacy decreases with a decline in cholinergic nerve function, the drugs are only effective in the early stages of mild or moderate senile dementia. Most of these drugs exhibit cholinergic side effects of peripheral nerves, and have a very short half-life and a serious side effect such as hepatotoxicity. Particularly, when 9-amino-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroacridine (THA), which is an active ingredient of Cognex, is orally administered, it shows an improvement in perceptive ability, but is accompanied by serious side effects such as tremors, dizziness and hepatotoxicity, and thus it is not widely used.

Meanwhile, as herbal medicines not exhibiting the disadvantages of such an AChE inhibitory drug, products which include ginseng as a main ingredient and are prepared by extracting a mixture of multiple herbal medicines are disclosed in Korean Unexamined Patent Application No. 99-85202 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,010,702. Although such a herbal medicine mixed extract exhibits a certain degree of efficacy on senile dementia, it still does not guarantee definite and stable effects due to having side effects.

Meanwhile, it is estimated that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) occurs in 3 to 5% of school children. Psychopharmacological agents that have been proposed for treatment of this disease so far include stimulating compounds (amphetamine and methylphenidate), tricyclic antidepressants (imipramine and amitriptyline) and antipsychotics (phenothiazine and haloperidol). Methylphenidate has been proven to be effective in treatment of hyperactivity and attention deficit, and has been the target of a variety of medical studies. However, hypertension has been reported as a side reaction, and it has been shown that impulsiveness sometimes increases. In treatment with methylphenidate, frequent side effects such as black circles around eyes, enlarged pupils, headache, and the loss of appetite have been reported.

SUMMARY

Technical Problem

To solve the above-described problems, the present invention is directed to providing a novel composition for preventing or treating dementia (AD).

The present invention is also directed to providing a composition for preventing or treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Technical Solution

To attain the purposes described above, the present invention provides a composition for preventing or treating dementia, which comprises aGalla rhoisextract and fraxin as active ingredients.

The present invention also provides a composition for preventing or treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which comprises aGalla rhoisextract and fraxin as active ingredients.

The present invention also provides a composition for improving cognitive ability, which comprises aGalla rhoisextract and fraxin as active ingredients.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the concentration of fraxin is preferably 0.1 to 0.5 mM, but the present invention is not limited thereto.

The composition of the present invention may be provided as a pharmaceutical composition. The pharmaceutical composition according to the present invention may further comprise a carrier, an excipient and a diluent, which are conventionally used and suitable for preparing a pharmaceutical composition. A pharmaceutical administration form of the composition of the present invention may also be used in the form of a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, or used alone, or assembled or properly combined with another pharmaceutically active compound. The salt may be any salt that is pharmaceutically available without particular limitation, and may include, for example, hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, phosphoric acid, hydrofluoric acid, hydrobromic acid, formic acid, acetic acid, tartaric acid, lactic acid, citric acid, fumaric acid, maleic acid, succinic acid, methanesulfonic acid, benzenesulfonic acid, toluenesulfonic acid, and napthalenesulfonic acid.

The pharmaceutical composition according to the present invention may be formulated in any form suitable for a pharmaceutical preparation, including oral formulations such as a powder, a granule, a tablet, a capsule, a suspension, an emulsion, a syrup and an aerosol, preparations for external use such as an ointment and a cream, a suppository and a sterile injectable solution, according to conventional methods.

In the pharmaceutical composition according to the present invention, a preferable dose of the extract or compound of the present invention may vary according to a subject's age, sex and body weight, symptoms, the severity of a disease, a dosage form, and the route and duration of administration. However, for preferable effects, the composition of the present invention is preferably administered daily at 0.001 to 500 mg/kg of body weight. The daily dose may be administered once or in divided portions. In addition, the dose may be increased or decreased according to age, sex, a body weight, the severity of a disease or the route of administration. Therefore, the dose does not limit the scope of the present invention in any way.

The pharmaceutical composition according to the present invention may be administered into mammals such as rats, mice, livestock or humans in various routes, for example, parenteral or oral routes, and all types of administration may be expected, for example, by oral, intrarectal, intravenous, muscular, subcutaneous, intrauterine or intracerebroventricular injection.

In addition, the composition of the present invention may be provided as a food additive or functional food composition. The food composition according to the present invention may include, for example, all kinds of foods such as chewing gums, caramels, candies, ice creams and confectioneries, beverages such as soft drinks and mineral water, and health functional foods such as vitamins and minerals.

Here, the content of the extract or compound may be 0.001 to 99.9 wt % of the total weight of food in food, and 0.001 to 0.1 g per 100 mL in beverages.

The beverage of the present invention has no limit on components except that it contains the extract and compound as essential components at a predetermined ratio, and may contain additional components such as various flavors or natural hydrocarbons like conventional beverages.

Other than these components, the health functional food composition of the present invention may contain a variety of nutrients, vitamins, minerals (electrolytes), flavoring agents including synthetic and natural flavoring agents, coloring agents and fillers (cheese, chocolate, etc.), pectic acid and a salt thereof, alginic acid and a salt thereof, an organic acid, protective colloid thickening agents, pH modifiers, stabilizers, preservatives, glycerin, alcohols, or carbonating agents used in carbonated beverages.

Advantageous Effects

In the present invention, it was identified that a composition including aGalla rhoisextract and fraxin significantly improves cognitive memory in an Alzheimer's disease model induced by Aβ (1-42) administration and an APPswe/PS1dE9 double-expressing Alzheimer's disease model and inhibits the generation of amyloid plaques, and this result can suggest the usefulness of the combination of theGalla rhoisextract and fraxin, as a therapeutic agent, for Alzheimer's disease, and show that the composition of theGalla rhoisextract and fraxin can be used as a therapeutic agent for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

