Effect of Combined Electroacupuncture and Selegiline Treatment in Alzheimer's Disease: An Animal Model

Protective effects of selegiline against amyloid beta-induced anxiety-like behavior and memory impairment

BACKGROUND

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a complex and common neurodegenerative disorder. The present study aimed to investigate the potential effects of selegiline (SEL) on various aspects of memory performance, anxiety, and oxidative stress in an AD rat model induced by intracerebroventricular injection of amyloid beta1-42 (Aβ1-42).

METHODS

Oral administration of SEL at a dose of 0.5 mg/kg/day was performed for 30 consecutive days. Following the 30 days, several tests, including the open-field, elevated plus-maze, novel object recognition, Morris water maze, and passive avoidance learning were conducted to assess locomotor activity, anxiety-like behavior, recognition memory, spatial memory, and passive avoidance memory, respectively.

RESULTS

The results indicate that the induction of AD in rats led to recognition memory, spatial memory, and passive avoidance memory impairments, as well as increased anxiety. Additionally, the AD rats exhibited a decrease in total antioxidant capacity and an increase in total oxidant status levels, suggesting an imbalance in oxidative-antioxidant status. However, the administration of SEL improved memory performance, reduced anxiety, and modulated oxidative-antioxidant status in AD rats.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings provide evidence that SEL may alleviate anxiety-like behavior and cognitive deficits induced by Aβ through modulation of oxidative-antioxidant status.

Bibliometric review of 1992–2022 publications on acupuncture for cognitive impairment

Objective

To explore the development context, research hotspots, and frontiers of acupuncture therapy for cognitive impairment (CI) from 1992 to 2022 by visualization analysis.

Methods

Articles about acupuncture therapy for cognitive impairment were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) until 1 March 2022. Basic information was collected by Excel 2007, and VOSviewer 1.6.17 was used to analyze the co-occurrence of countries, institutes, and authors. Co-citation maps of authors and references were analyzed by CiteSpace V.5.8.R3. In addition, CiteSpace was used to analyze keyword clusters and forecast research frontiers.

Results

A total of 279 articles were retrieved, including articles from 19 countries, 334 research institutes, and 101 academic journals. The most published country and institutes were the People's Republic of China (217) and the Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (40). Ronald C Petersen owned the highest co-citations (56). Keywords and co-cited references cluster showed the main research directions in this area, including “ischemic stroke,” “cerebral ischemia/reperfusion,” “mild cognitive impairment,” “Alzheimer's disease,” “vascular dementia,” “vascular cognitive impairment with no dementia,” “multi-infarct dementia,” “synaptic injury,” “functional MRI,” “glucose metabolism,” “NMDA,” “nuclear factor-kappa b pathway,” “neurotrophic factor,” “matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2),” “tumor necrosis factor-alpha,” “Bax,” “Caspase-3,” and “Noxa”. Trending keywords may indicate frontier topics, such as “randomized controlled trial,” “rat model,” and “meta-analysis.”

Conclusion

This research provides valuable information for the study of acupuncture. Diseases focus on mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Alzheimer's disease (AD), and vascular dementia (VaD). Tauopathies with hyperphosphorylation of Tau protein as the main lesions also need to be paid attention to. The development of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) will better explain the therapeutic effect of acupuncture treatment. The effect of acupuncture on a single point is more convincing, and acupuncture on Baihui (GV20) may be needed in the future. Finally, the implementation of high-quality multicenter randomized controlled trials (RCTs) requires increased collaboration among experts from multiple fields and countries.

Antioxidants in Alzheimer's Disease: Current Therapeutic Significance and Future Prospects

Alzheimer's disease (AD) rate is accelerating with the increasing aging of the world's population. The World Health Organization (WHO) stated AD as a global health priority. According to the WHO report, around 82 million people in 2030 and 152 million in 2050 will develop dementia (AD contributes 60% to 70% of cases), considering the current scenario. AD is the most common neurodegenerative disease, intensifying impairments in cognition, behavior, and memory. Histopathological AD variations include extracellular senile plaques' formation, tangling of intracellular neurofibrils, and synaptic and neuronal loss in the brain. Multiple evidence directly indicates that oxidative stress participates in an early phase of AD before cytopathology. Moreover, oxidative stress is induced by almost all misfolded protein lumps like α-synuclein, amyloid-β, and others. Oxidative stress plays a crucial role in activating and causing various cell signaling pathways that result in lesion formations of toxic substances, which foster the development of the disease. Antioxidants are widely preferred to combat oxidative stress, and those derived from natural sources, which are often incorporated into dietary habits, can play an important role in delaying the onset as well as reducing the progression of AD. However, this approach has not been extensively explored yet. Moreover, there has been growing evidence that a combination of antioxidants in conjugation with a nutrient-rich diet might be more effective in tackling AD pathogenesis. Thus, considering the above-stated fact, this comprehensive review aims to elaborate the basics of AD and antioxidants, including the vitality of antioxidants in AD. Moreover, this review may help researchers to develop effectively and potentially improved antioxidant therapeutic strategies for this disease as it also deals with the clinical trials in the stated field.