Journal of Alzheimers Disease & Parkinsonism
Open Access

Abstract

Atorvastatin (Ator), competitive inhibitors of 3-hydroxymethyl-3-glutaryl-coenzyme-A reductase, is a cholesterol lowering drug. Ator has been shown to have neuroprotective, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties making that a potential candidate for the treatment of central nervous system (CNS) disorders. Here we assessed the effect of Ator on the D-galactose (D-gal)-induced aging in mice. For this purpose, Ator (0.1 and 1 mg/kg/p.o.), was administrated daily in D-gal-received (500 mg/kg/p.o.) mice model of aging for six weeks. Anxiety-like behaviors and cognitive functions were evaluated by the elevated plus-maze and novel object recognition tasks, respectively. Physical power was assessed by forced swimming capacity test. Animals brains were analyzed for the superoxide dismutase (SOD) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). We found that Ator decreases the anxiety-like behaviors in D-gal-treated mice. Also, our behavioral tests showed that Ator reverses the D-gal induced learning and memory impairment. Furthermore, we found that Ator increases the physical power of D-galtreated mice. Our results indicated that the neuroprotective effect of Ator on D-gal induced neurotoxicity is mediated, at least in part, by an increase in the SOD and BDNF levels. The results of present study suggest that Atro could be used as a novel therapeutic strategy for the treatment of age-related conditions.

Biography

Iman Fatemi has started his PhD at the age of 28 years from Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences. He has published more than 10 papers in reputed journals.