摘要Microglia,the resident immune cells in the central nervous system(CNS),rapidly transition from a resting to an active state in the acute phase of ischemic brain injury.This active state mediates a pro-inflammatory response that can exacerbate the injury.Targeting the pro-in-flammatory response of microglia in the semi-dark band during this acute phase may effect-ively reduce brain injury.Shionone(SH),an active ingredient extracted from the dried roots and rhizomes of the genus Aster(Asteraceae),has been reported to regulate the inflammat-ory response of macrophages in sepsis-induced acute lung injury.However,its function in post-stroke neuroinflammation,particularly microglia-mediated neuroinflammation,re-mains uninvestigated.This study found that SH significantly inhibited lipopolysaccharide(LPS)-induced elevation of inflammatory cytokines,including interleukin-1β(IL-1β),tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α),and inducible nitric oxide synthase(iNOS),in microglia in vitro.Furthermore,the results demonstrated that SH alleviated infarct volume and improved beha-vioral performance in middle cerebral artery occlusion(MCAO)mice,which may be attrib-uted to the inhibition of the microglial inflammatory response induced by SH treatment.Mechanistically,SH potently inhibited the phosphorylation of serine-threonine protein kinase B(AKT),mammalian target of rapamycin(mTOR),and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3(STAT3).These findings suggest that SH may be a potential therapeutic agent for relieving ischemic stroke(IS)by alleviating microglia-associated neuroinflammation.