NGF and Alzheimer disease: Additional benefits of H. erinaceus include the promotion of nerve growth factor (NGF) [15], promotion of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), improvement of cognitive function [11], promotion of anti-inflammation, reduction in astrocyte activation, hippocampal neurogenesis, glial cell activation [16], reduction in nitric oxide (NO) production in BV2 microglia, and improvements in AD-related behaviors such as burrowing and nesting in mice [9] which can be viewed as analogous to activities of daily living in humans.