Rutin inhibits β-amyloid aggregation and cytotoxicity, attenuates oxidative stress, and decreases the production of nitric oxide and proinflammatory cytokines.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a complex, multi-factorial neurodegenerative disease. The aggregation of soluble β-amyloid (Aβ) into fibrillar deposits is a pathological hallmark of AD. The Aβ aggregate-induced neurotoxicity, inflammatory reactions, oxidative stress, and nitric oxide (NO) generation are strongly linked to the etiology of AD. Here, we show that the common dietary flavonoid, rutin, can dose-dependently inhibit Aβ42 fibrillization and attenuate Aβ42-induced cytotoxicity in SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells. Moreover, rutin decreases the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), NO, glutathione disulfide (GSSG), and malondialdehyde (MDA), reduces inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) activity, attenuates mitochondrial damage, increases the glutathione (GSH)/GSSG ratio, enhances the activities of super oxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and modulates the production of proinflammatory cytokines by decreasing TNF-α and IL-1β generation in microglia. Taken together, the actions of rutin on multiple pathogenic factors deserves further investigation for the prevention and treatment of AD.