Behavioral deficit and decreased GABA receptor functional regulation in the cerebellum of epileptic rats: effect of Bacopa monnieri and bacoside A

Cognitive comorbidities in the rat pilocarpine model of epilepsy

Patients with epilepsy are prone to cognitive decline, depression, anxiety and other behavioral disorders. Cognitive comorbidities are particularly common and well-characterized in people with temporal lobe epilepsy, while inconsistently addressed in epileptic animals. Therefore, the aim of this study was to ascertain whether there is good evidence of cognitive comorbidities in animal models of epilepsy, in particular in the rat pilocarpine model of temporal lobe epilepsy. We searched the literature published between 1990 and 2023. The association of spontaneous recurrent seizures induced by pilocarpine with cognitive alterations has been evaluated by using various tests: contextual fear conditioning (CFC), novel object recognition (NOR), radial and T-maze, Morris water maze (MWM) and their variants. Combination of results was difficult because of differences in methodological standards, in number of animals employed, and in outcome measures. Taken together, however, the analysis confirmed that pilocarpine-induced epilepsy has an effect on cognition in rats, and supports the notion that this is a valid model for assessment of cognitive temporal lobe epilepsy comorbidities in preclinical research.

Protective effects of Urtica dioica on the cerebral cortex damage induced by Potassium bromate in adult male albino rats

Potassium bromate is used in cheese production, beer making and is also used in pharmaceutical and cosmetic. It is a proven carcinogen as it is a strong oxidizing agent that generates free radicals during xenobiotic metabolism. Urtica dioica (Ud) (from the plants' family of Urticaceae) is a plant that has long been used as a medicinal plant in many parts of the world. It has been shown to have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and immunosuppressive properties. So, this study aimed to clarify the effect of Potassium bromate on the histological structure of cerebral cortex of adult male albino rats, evaluate the possible protective role of Urtica dioica. Thirty adult healthy male albino rats were divided into three groups; group I (Control group), group II (KBrO3 treated group). Group III (KBrO3 and Urtica dioica treated group).At the end of the experiment, rats in all groups were anesthetized and specimens were processed for light and electron microscope. Morphometric and statistical analyses were also performed. Nerve cells of the treated group showed irregular contours, dark nuclei, irregular nuclear envelopes, dilated RER cisternae, and mitochondria with ruptured cristae. Vacuolated neuropil was also observed. Immunohistochemically, stained sections for GFAP showed strong positive reaction in the processes of astrocytes. Recovery group showed revealed nearly the same as the histological picture as the control group. In conclusion, potassium bromate induces degenerative effects on neurons of cerebral cortex and urtica dioica provide an important neuroprotective effects against these damaging impacts through their antioxidant properties.

[Bacosides: a study of neurobiological activity, prospects for application]

Bacosides are the main biologically active components derived from the plant bacopa monnieri (Bacopa monnieri (L.) Wettst.), which has been used as a nootropic in Indian medicine for many centuries. In recent years, these compounds have attracted attention because of their wide range of neurobiological effects. The neuroprotective effects of bacosides on brain neurons under the influence of various damaging factors (neurotoxins, oxidative stress, beta-amyloid deposition, cigarette smoke, etc.) have been established. It was shown that these substances reduce the levels of inflammatory cytokines and inhibit the processes of demyelination of neurons. The anticonvulsant effect of bacosides has been established. These compounds also improve cognitive functions, including memory and learning abilities. The effects associated with the influence on the dopaminergic and serotonergic systems of the striatum are of interest for the therapy of morphine addiction. The theoretical justifications for the future use of bacosides as a multipurpose means of complex therapy of individual diseases in neurological and psychiatric practice are presented.

Ameliorative Role of Nutraceuticals on Neurodegenerative Diseases Using the Drosophila melanogaster as a Discovery Model to Define Bioefficacy

Neurodegeneration is the destruction of neurons, and once the neurons degenerate they can't revive. This is one of the most concerned health conditions among aged population, more than ∼70% of the elderly people are suffering from neurodegeneration. Among all of the neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD) and Poly-glutamine disease (Poly-Q) are the major one and affecting most of the people around the world and posing excessive burden on the society. In order to understand this disease in non-human animal models it is pertinent to examine in model organism and various animal model are being used for such diseases like rat, mice and non-vertebrate model like Drosophila. Drosophila melanogaster is one of the best animal proven by several eminent scientist and had received several Nobel prizes for uncovering mechanism of human related genes and highly efficient model for studying neurodegenerative diseases due to its great affinity with human disease-related genes. Another factor is also employed to act as therapeutic or preventive method that is nutraceuticals. Nutraceuticals are functional natural compounds with antioxidant properties and had extensively showed the neuroprotective effect in different organisms. These nutraceuticals having antioxidant properties act through scavenging free radicals or by increasing endogenous cellular antioxidant defense molecules. For the best benefit, we are trying to utilize these nutraceuticals, which will have no or negligible side effects. In this review, we are dealing with various types of such nutraceuticals which have potent value in the prevention and curing of the diseases related to neurodegeneration.HighlightsNeurodegeneration is the silently progressing disease which shows its symptoms when it is well rooted.Many chemical drugs (almost all) have only symptomatic relief with side effects.Potent mechanism of neurodegeneration and improvement effect by nutraceuticals is proposed.Based on the Indian Cuisine scientists are trying to find the medicine from the food or food components having antioxidant properties.The best model to study the neurodegenerative diseases is Drosophila melanogaster.Many nutraceuticals having antioxidant properties have been studied and attenuated various diseases are discussed.

Identification of Potential Antiseizure Agents in Boswellia sacra using In Vivo Zebrafish and Mouse Epilepsy Models

The resin of the tree Boswellia sacra Flueck. (synonym: B. carterii; Burseraceae), also known as "frankincense", is a traditional remedy used for central nervous system disorders in East Africa. Here we report the evaluation of its antiseizure activity in zebrafish and mouse epilepsy models to identify novel antiseizure compounds. The resin was extracted by solvents of increasing polarity. The hexane extract demonstrated the strongest antiseizure activity and was therefore subjected to bioactivity-guided isolation, which leaded to the isolation of eight terpene derivatives. A new prenylbicyclogermacrene derivative (2) was isolated along with seven other compounds (1, 3-8). Among them, the triterpene β-boswellic acid (5) showed the strongest activity and reduced 90% of pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-induced seizures at 100 μg/mL. In parallel to B. sacra, a commercial extract of Boswellia serrata was also evaluated and showed moderate bioactivity (45% reduction at 30 μg/mL). The extract of B. serrata was subjected to targeted isolation of other boswellic acid derivatives (9-13), which were evaluated for antiseizure activity in comparison with 5. In the whole series, β-boswellic acid (5) was the most active (60% reduction at 200 μM), and its potency was also confirmed with its purchased standard (S5). Pure nanoparticles of S5 and a commercially formulated extract of B. serrata were tested in a PTZ-kindling mouse seizure model. This notably revealed that the S5 administration reduced seizures by 50% in this mouse model, which was consistent with its detection and quantification in plasma and brain samples. This study and the preclinical evaluation performed indicate that β-boswellic acid, common to various species of Boswellia, has some potential as an antiseizure agent.

Neuroprotection with Bacopa monnieri-A review of experimental evidence

Brahmi or aindri is a popular herb in the vast and rich compendium of herbs of Ayurveda and is botanically identified as Bacopa monnieri Linn. (BM). It is extensively used in Ayurveda and other traditional systems of medicine in the management of neurological psychiatric disorders. BM possess active principles belonging to alkaloids, glycosides, flavonoids, saponins categories. Numerous research have been undertaken across the globe to evaluate the neuroprotective potential of this herb. This review collates and summarises current (as on May 2020) published literature on Brahmi as a neuroprotective in neurological and psychiatric disorders. English language articles from databases PubMed, Scopus and Google scholar were searched using appropriate free keywords and MeSH terms related to the topic. The review demonstrates the neuroprotective potential of the Ayurveda herb Brahmi in several disorders including Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, cerebral ischemia and infarct and neoplasms.

Status analysis of herbal drug therapies in epilepsy: advancements in the use of medicinal plants with anti-inflammatory properties

BACKGROUND

Use of plants and plant products in health care has shown exponential increase in past two decades.

INTRODUCTION

In-spite of the availability of well-established pharmacotherapy for epilepsy, a large no of population still explores alternative treatments due to refractory seizures, adverse effects of drugs, chronic treatment, inaccessibility of standard therapies in rural areas and the social stigma attached to the disease. Various studies on medicinal plants showed the protective effect of herbals in animal models of epilepsy.

METHOD

In the present review, a status analysis of the traditional use of various medicinal plants in epilepsy with a special focus on plats having anti-inflammatory potential is recorded.

RESULT AND CONCLUSION

The shortcomings of research on medicinal plants which needs to be explored further in order to tackle the growing need of safer and effective drugs for epilepsy are discussed. Overall, there is a huge scope of herbal drugs in CNS disorders especially epilepsy, either as an adjunct by reducing the dose and thus side effects of standard anti-epileptic drugs or as standalone agent . Although, there is still an urgent need of well planned randomized controlled clinical trials to validate their efficacy and safety.

Effect of pre- and post-treatment with Bacopa monnieri (Brahmi) on phencyclidine-induced disruptions in object recognition memory and cerebral calbindin, parvalbumin, and calretinin immunoreactivity in rats

Background: Decreased gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-ergic neurons in the brain of both schizophrenic patients and animal models indicates that impairment of GABAergic function is implicated in pathophysiology of the disorder. Decreased GABAergic neurotransmission might be also involved in cognitive impairment, which is developed in schizophrenia. Brahmi (Bacopa monnieri) could be a new treatment and prevention for this cognitive deficit in schizophrenia by increasing GABAergic neurons to a normal level. Aim: The authors aimed to study cognitive-enhancement- and neuroprotective-effects of Brahmi on novel object recognition memory and GABAergic neuronal density, defined by the presence of calcium binding proteins (CBPs; calbindin (CB), parvalbumin (PV), and calretinin (CR)) in a sub-chronic (2 mg/kg, Bid, ip) phencyclidine (PCP) rat model of schizophrenia. Materials and methods: In the cognitive-enhancement-effect study rats were assigned to three groups; Group-1: Control, Group-2: PCP-administration, and Group-3: PCP+Brahmi. In the neuroprotective-effect study rats were assigned to three groups; Group-1: Control, Group-2: PCP-administration, and Group-3: Brahmi+PCP. A discrimination ratio (DR) representing cognitive ability was obtained from the novel object recognition task. CB, PV, and CR immunodensity were measured in the prefrontal cortex, striatum, and cornuammonis fields 1-3 (CA1-3) using immunohistochemistry. Results: Reduced DR was found in the PCP group, which occurred alongside reduced CB, PV, and CR in all brain regions except for CR in the striatum and CA1-3 in the cognitive-enhancement-effect study. PCP+Brahmi showed a higher DR score with increased CB in the prefrontal cortex and striatum, increased PV in the prefrontal cortex and CA1-3, and increased CR in the prefrontal cortex. The Brahmi+PCP group showed higher DR score with increased CB in all areas, increased PV in the striatum, and increased CR in the prefrontal cortex and striatum. Conclusion: The present study demonstrated the effects, both partial restoration of cognitive deficit and neuroprotection, of Brahmi, and elucidated its underlying mechanism of actions via increasing GABAergic neurons in a PCP-induced schizophrenic-like model.

Effect of acute and long term potassium bromide administration on spatial working memory in rat

Potassium bromide (KBr), an old antiepileptic agent, is illegally used in pharmaceutical or food industries to improve the product appearance. KBr has been proven to influence several pathways which are important in memory formation. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the effect of KBr on spatial working memory using object recognition task (ORT). Rats received a single dose of KBr (50, 100 or 150 mg/kg), per oral, in acute treatment. KBr long term effects were also studied in animals receiving 50 mg/kg/day of KBr for 28 consecutive days. At the end of treatments, animals underwent two trials of ORT, five min each. In the first trial (T₁), animals encountered with two identical objects for exploration. After 1 h, the animals were exposed to a familiar and an unfamiliar object (T₂). The exploration times for discrimination (D) and recognition (R) as well as the frequency of exploration for any objects were determined. Acute administration of 150 mg/kg of KBr significantly decreased the discrimination and recognition indices (RI and DI) (P < 0.01) compared to the control. However, lower doses failed to influence the animals’ performance in the test. In addition, long term administration of KBr remarkably diminished the DI and RI and the frequency of exploration (P < 0.05). The results of this study indicate that acute doses of KBr as high as 150 mg/kg are required to hamper memory function in ORT. However, cognitive impairment occured with lower doses of KBr when the duration of treatment is extended.

Impact of miglustat on evolution of atypical presentation of late-infantile-onset Niemann-Pick disease type C with early cognitive impairment, behavioral dysfunction, epilepsy, ophthalmoplegia, and cerebellar involvement: a case report

Background

Niemann–Pick disease type C is a rare inherited neurodegenerative disease involving impaired intracellular lipid trafficking and accumulation of glycolipids in various tissues, including the brain. Miglustat, a reversible inhibitor of glucosylceramide synthase, has been shown to be effective in the treatment of progressive neurological manifestations in pediatric and adult patients with Niemann–Pick disease type C, and has been used in that indication in Europe since 2010.

Case presentation

We describe the case of a 16-year-old white French boy with late-infantile-onset Niemann–Pick disease type C who had the unusual presentation of early-onset behavioral disturbance and learning difficulties (aged 5) alongside epileptic seizures. Over time he developed characteristic, progressive vertical ophthalmoplegia, ataxic gait, and cerebellar syndrome; at age 10 he was diagnosed as having Niemann–Pick disease type C based on filipin staining and genetic analysis (heterozygous I1061T/R934X NPC1 mutations). He was commenced on miglustat therapy aged 11 and over the course of approximately 3 years he showed a global improvement as well as improved cognitive and ambulatory function. During this period he remained seizure free on antiepileptic therapy, using valproate and lamotrigine.

Conclusions

Miglustat improved the neurological status of our patient, including seizure control. Based on our findings in this patient and previous published data, we discuss the importance of effective seizure control in neurological improvement in Niemann–Pick disease type C, and the relevance of cerebellar involvement as a possible link between these clinical phenomena. Thus the therapeutic efficacy of miglustat could be hypothesized as a substrate reduction effect on Purkinje cells.

Ayurveda and botanical drugs for epilepsy: Current evidence and future prospects

The understanding of epilepsy has progressed since its earliest impression as a disease associated with paranormal and superstitious beliefs. Landmark advances have been made in deciphering the pathophysiological substrates involved in the disease process, and treatment advances have contributed significantly to ameliorating the seizures. However, disease-modifying agents are yet to be discovered. Ayurveda is a system of medicine that stresses a holistic approach to disease, and treatment is focused on disease modification and symptom management. Herbs form the core of Ayurveda medicine; though many of them have been studied for their anticonvulsant activity, very few actually mention the reference of these herbs in Ayurveda literature. Other therapeutic interventions used in Ayurveda are relatively unexplored, and future research will need to focus on this. The current manuscript briefly discusses the understanding of epilepsy as per Ayurveda and reviews herbs that have been studied for their anticonvulsant activity mentioned in Ayurveda literature. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled "Botanicals for Epilepsy".

Inhibition of human cytochrome P450 enzymes by Bacopa monnieri standardized extract and constituents

Bacopa monnieri and the constituents of this plant, especially bacosides, possess various neuropharmacological properties. Like drugs, some herbal extracts and the constituents of their extracts alter cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes, causing potential herb-drug interactions. The effects of Bacopa monnieri standardized extract and the bacosides from the extract on five major CYP isoforms in vitro were analyzed using a luminescent CYP recombinant human enzyme assay. B. monnieri extract exhibited non-competitive inhibition of CYP2C19 (IC50/Ki = 23.67/9.5 µg/mL), CYP2C9 (36.49/12.5 µg/mL), CYP1A2 (52.20/25.1 µg/mL); competitive inhibition of CYP3A4 (83.95/14.5 µg/mL) and weak inhibition of CYP2D6 (IC50 = 2061.50 µg/mL). However, the bacosides showed negligible inhibition of the same isoforms. B. monnieri, which is orally administered, has a higher concentration in the gut than the liver; therefore, this herb could exhibit stronger inhibition of intestinal CYPs than hepatic CYPs. At an estimated gut concentration of 600 µg/mL (based on a daily dosage of 300 mg/day), B. monnieri reduced the catalytic activities of CYP3A4, CYP2C9 and CYP2C19 to less than 10% compared to the total activity (without inhibitor = 100%). These findings suggest that B. monnieri extract could contribute to herb-drug interactions when orally co-administered with drugs metabolized by CYP1A2, CYP3A4, CYP2C9 and CYP2C19.

Reduced numbers of cortical GABA-immunoreactive neurons in the chronic D-galactose treatment model of brain aging

Chronic administration of d-galactose (d-gal) is widely used to mimic the process of brain aging; however, the neural mechanisms are still poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the effect of long-term d-gal treatment on the number of GABA-immunoreactive neurons in rat cerebral cortex and the behavioral correlates. After eight weeks of daily subcutaneous injection of d-gal (100mg/ml/kg), rats showed reduced exploratory activity and lower ambulation in the open field compared to controls. There was no significant reduction in total neurons in the cortex, but there was a marked decrease in the number of GABA-immunoreactive neurons in all cortical layers of d-gal-treated rats. The ratio of GABA-immunoreactive neurons to total neurons was significantly lower in all cortical layers of d-gal-treated rats, with greatest reductions in output layers III (39.9% reduction), V (46.3%), and VI (48.4%). Our study provides the first evidence that chronic d-gal treatment may decrease cortical GABAergic neurotransmission, especially in cerebral output layers. The reduction in GABA-immunoreactive cell number likely disrupts the intracortical excitatory/inhibitory balance and may contribute to the behavioral deficits observed in this aging model.

Prameha in Ayurveda: correlation with obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes mellitus. Part 2--management of Prameha

BACKGROUND

Obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes mellitus are increasing to epidemic proportions globally. Prameha is a syndrome described in the ancient Ayurvedic texts that includes clinical conditions involved in obesity, prediabetes, diabetes mellitus, and metabolic syndrome.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Various dietary, lifestyle, and psychologic factors are involved in the etiology of Prameha, particularly in relation to disturbances in fat and carbohydrate metabolism.

RESULTS

The Ayurvedic management of Prameha emphasizes dietary and lifestyle recommendations and herbal preparations, in accordance with the psychophysiologic constitution of the patient. Ayurveda also addresses the management of psychologic factors that contribute to the development of Prameha. Ayurvedic treatment known as Apatarpana (balanced diet with restricted calories) and Santarpana (highly nutritious, high-calorie diet intended to increase weight) are recommended for patients with type 2 and type 1 diabetes, respectively. Various Ayurvedic herbs and herbomineral formulations are utilized, based on the stage and type of disease as well as the psychophysiologic constitution of the patient. A large body of research has been conducted on these Ayurvedic herbs.

CONCLUSIONS

Integrating the theory and modalities of Ayurveda in the management of these disorders may prove to be beneficial.