Brain cell or nerve cell-protective agents comprising ginsenoside Rb1

摘要

The present invention provides preparations for efficaciously administering ginsenoside Rb1 or its salt useful as cytoprotective agents. More particularly, the present invention provides pharmaceutical compositions comprising ginsenoside Rb1 or its salt for inhibiting apoptosis or apoptosis-like cell death or pharmaceutical compositions comprising ginsenoside Rb1 or its salt for promoting the expression of a cell death-inhibitory gene product Bcl-xL. Further, the present invention provides preparations for intravenous administration comprising ginsenoside Rb1 or its salt. The above pharmaceutical compositions contain ginsenoside Rb1 or its salt at low extracellular concentrations in lesion, preferably at 1 ng/ml or less and still preferably at 1 to 100 fg/ml. These compositions promote the expression of the cell death-inhibitory gene product Bcl-xL and inhibit apoptosis or apoptosis-like cell death. The above preparations for intravenous administration are useful for therapy, prevention or treatment of many diseases, in particular, brain and nervous diseases.