Effects of Herbal Compound (IMOD) on Behavior and Expression of Alzheimer's Disease Related Genes in Streptozotocin-Rat Model of Sporadic Alzheimer’s Disease

• Published in: Advanced pharmaceutical bulletin 2017-09, Vol.7 (3), p.491-494
• Main Authors: Bazazzadegan, Niloofar, Dehghan Shasaltaneh, Marzieh, Saliminejad, Kioomars, Kamali, Koorosh, Banan, Mehdi, Khorram Khorshid, Hamid Reza
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome; AIDS; Alzheimer's disease; Brain research; Diabetes; Flowers & plants; Gene expression; Herbal extract; HIV; Human immunodeficiency virus; Inflammation; Laboratory animals; Memory; Oxidative stress; Rat model; Rodents; Selenium; Sepsis; Short Communication; Studies; Surgery; Vascular endothelial growth factor
• ISSN: 2228-5881; 2251-7308
• DOI: 10.15171/apb.2017.060

Among various genes related to pathology of SAD, DAXX, NFKß, VEGF genes with the role in apoptosis, inflammation and angiogenesis represented significant differential expression in Alzheimer human brain.6 IMOD (Rose PharMed Co. (Iran)), the herbal extract of Tanacetum vulgare, Rosa canina and Urtica dioica plant species, which has been enriched with selenium, has antiinflammatory, immunoregulatory and a protective effect against oxidative stress.7-9 Several in vitro and in vivo studies in animal models and human have shown that Urtica dioica extracts decreases some inflammatory factors levels. The ethanoltreated STZ group (Six rats) which received diluted ethanol 86% ( 10 fold dilution) as I.P. as the vehicle of herbal extract,18 and the IMOD treated STZ group (Eight rats) received the compound as intrapritoneal (IP) at the dose of 20 mg/kg/day for 21 days after modeling.19 All groups of rats were examined for behavioral evaluation using Morris Water Maze (MWM) test.20 They subsequently were sacrificed with stereotaxic surgery and all hippocampi were dissected and preserved in RNA protector solution at -20°C.21 All procedures were carried out according to the National Institute of Health Guide for the care and use of laboratory animals.22 Total RNAs were extracted from all hippocampus tissues using UP100H ultrasonic processor (Germany) and RNeasy Plus Mini Kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) according to the manufacturer's protocol. According to the available data, it is postulated reduced VEGF expression in AD.25 Furthermore, increased levels of VEGF has been reported in the hippocampal cortex of AD patients comparing to normal brain.26 Therefore, VEGF levels are controversial in AD patient. [...]as it has been indicated, Vegf showed significant up-regulation in alcohol comparing to model group; whereas, no difference in the herbal comparing to its vehicle (alcohol) group was seen. [...]alcohol may be an important factor which could be effective on expression level of Vegf gene in the herbal-treated group.