Table 1.

TCM treats AD by regulating the mechanism related to HPA axis.

TCM	Method	Animal	Cell	Mechanism	Related pathways	Nerve protection effect	Reference
ASD	Aβ25-35	Rats	/	Serum ACTH↓CORT↓	/	Reduce anxiety symptoms	(92) Y. Wang, et al, 2017
ICA	Aβ25-35	/	HT22	GR↑/BDNF↑	SOD↑、LDH↓、Bcl-2↑、Bax↓、Caspase-3↓	/	(100) C. Tang, et al, 2020
DNLA	12M CUS	Rats	/	Cortex CORT↓/CRF1↑/ACTH↓/GR↑	5-HT↓5-HIAA↓MAO↓、 DA↓DOPAC↓COMT↓	CA2/cortex neural survival↑ Nissl body↑	(102) T. W. Xiong, et al,2021
AMA	/	/	PC12	GR/PLC/PKC↑	INSR/PI3K/AKT/ERK↑、TrkB/Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK↑	Neurogenesis and differentiation↑	(103) L. Cheng, et al, 2021
TEN	CRS	Mice	/	Serum ACTH↓CORT↓ GR↑/TLR4/MyD88/TRAF6/NFκ B	PSD95↑SYN↑	/	(104) H. Wang, et al, 2022
PU	D-gal	Mice	/	GR↑/CREB↑/BDNF↑	/	Neurogenesis and differentiation↑	(101) X. Y. Li, et al, 2017
Rg1	DEX	Mice	/	GR↑/NLRP1↓/ASC↓	IL-1β↓、IL-18↓、Caspase-1↓、Caspase-5↓	Cortex/CA1/CA3 neural survival↑	(105) Y. Zhang, et al, 2017
WEG	corticosterone	/	PC12	GR↑/Hsp90↓/HDAC6↑ CHOP↓、GRP78↓、XBP-1↓	Caspase-12↓、LDH↓ Cytochrome C↓、ICAD↓、Caspase-3↓、Caspase-9↓	Neural survival↑	(97) Y. Jiang, et al, 2015
WEST	corticosterone	/	PC12	CHOP↓、GRP78↓、Bax↓、Bcl-2↑	LDH↓、ROS↓、Cytochrome C↓、Caspase -3↓、Caspase -9↓	Neural survival↑	(98) H. Y. Yun, et al, 2020
TMF	DEX	Mice	/	BACE1 ↓、Aβ↓ Gsk3β↓/p-Tau↓ Raf↑/ERK1/2↑/NF-kB↓	AChE↓ PSD95↑、ADAM10↑、Caspase-3↓	Neuronal apoptosis↓ Neurogenesis and differentiation↑	(106) (107)K. Pakdeepak, et al, 2020
AST	Aβ25-35 DEX	Rats	/	/	APP↓BACE1↓Aβ↓	CA1 neural survival↑	(93) W. Z. Li, et al, 2012

chronic restraint stress, CRS; dexamethasone, DEX; Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor, BDNF.

The '↑' means up-regulation and '↓' means down-regulation.