Docosahexaenoic Acid-Phosphatidylcholine Improves Cognitive Deficits in an Aβ_23-35-Induced Alzheimer’s Disease Rat Model

Title:Docosahexaenoic Acid-Phosphatidylcholine Improves Cognitive Deficits in an Aβ_23-35-Induced Alzheimer’s Disease Rat Model

Volume: 16 Issue: 5

Author(s): Mei-Hua Qu, Xiaoyun Yang, Yuming Wang, Qingjuan Tang, Hailin Han, Jia Wang, Guo- Du Wang, Changhu Xue and Zhiqin Gao

Affiliation:

Keywords: AD rats, cognitive improvement, DHA-PC, GSH-Px, Tau phosphorylation.

Abstract: Both Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and Phosphatidylcholine (PC) have been shown to halt the pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease (AD) and vascular dementia. This study aimed to investigate the role of DHA-containing PC (DHA-PC) in the improvement of Aβ_25-35-induced cognitive deficits in rats. Aβ_25-35-induced AD rats were treated for 30 days with DHA-PC, which was extracted from Sthenoteuthis oualaniensis spawns. Cognitive improvement of the AD rats was detected using the Morris water maze (MWM). The results demonstrated that DHA-PC could improve the learning and memory abilities of AD rats in a dose-dependent pattern. Further analyses showed that expression of phosphorylated tau decreased, and the neuronal morphology recovered in brains of DHA-PC-treated AD rats, as compared with mock-treated AD rats. In addition, DHAPC treatment increased the activity of GSH-Px and SOD in the cortex and hippocampus of AD rats. Taken together, these data suggest that DHA-PC is able to improve the cognitive deficits in AD rats, probably through decreasing the phosphorylation of tau in the cortex and hippocampus CA1 area, and increasing the GSH-Px and SOD activities in the brain of AD rats.

Cite this article as:

Qu Mei-Hua, Yang Xiaoyun, Wang Yuming, Tang Qingjuan, Han Hailin, Wang Jia, Wang Guo- Du, Xue Changhu and Gao Zhiqin, Docosahexaenoic Acid-Phosphatidylcholine Improves Cognitive Deficits in an Aβ_23-35-Induced Alzheimer’s Disease Rat Model, Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry 2016; 16 (5) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1568026615666150813144437