Delayed administration of Trichilia catigua A. Juss. Ethyl-acetate fraction after cerebral ischemia prevents spatial memory deficits, decreases oxidative stress, and impacts neural plasticity in rats.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Trichilia catigua A. Juss (Meliaceae) is used in Brazilian folk medicine to alleviate fatigue and emotional stress and improve memory. Previous studies from our laboratory reported that an ethyl-acetate fraction (EAF) of T. catigua that was given before cerebral ischemia in vivo prevented memory loss and reduced oxidative stress and neuroinflammation. Despite the value of these findings of a neuroprotective effect of T. catigua, treatment that was given immediately before or immediately after ischemia limits its clinical relevance. Thus, unknown is whether T. catigua possesses a specific time window of efficacy (TWE) when administered postischemia. AIM OF THE STUDY: Given continuity to previous studies, we investigated whether an EAF of T. catigua maintains its neuroprotective properties if treatment begins at different time windows of efficacy after ischemia. We also evaluated, for the first time, whether T. catigua possesses neuroplasticity/neurotrophic properties. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Rats were subjected to transient global brain ischemia (TGCI) and then given a single dose of the EAF (400 mg/kg) or vehicle (1 ml/kg) orally 1, 4, or 6 h postischemia. The levels of protein PCG, GSH, and GSSG, and activity of SOD and CAT were assayed as markers of oxidative stress on the day after ischemia. In another experiment, naive rats underwent spatial learning training in a radial maze task and then subjected to TGCI. Delayed treatment with the EAF began 4 or 6 h later and continued for 7 days. Retrograde memory performance was assessed 10, 17, and 24 days postischemia. Afterward, brains were examined for neurodegeneration and neuronal dendritic morphology in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex. Another group received the EAF at 4 h of reperfusion, and 4 days later their brains were examined for GFAP and Iba-1 immunoreactivity. Lastly, ischemic rats received the EAF 4 h after ischemia and neural plasticity-related proteins, BDNF, SYN, PSD 95, and NeuN were measured in the hippocampus 7 and 14 days after ischemia. RESULTS: A single EAF administration 1, 4, or 6 h postischemia alleviated oxidative stress that was caused by ischemia, expressed as a reduction of the amount of the PCG and GSSG, normalization of the GSH/GSSG ratio, and the restoration of SOD activity. Ischemia caused the persistent loss of memory (i.e., amnesia), an outcome that was consistently ameliorated by treatment with the EAF that was initiated 4 or 6 h postischemia. The 4 h delay in EAF treatment positively impacted dendritic morphology in neurons that survived ischemia. TGCI reduced BDNF, SYN, PSD-95, and NeuN protein levels in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex. The EAF normalized SYN and PSD-95 protein levels. Ischemia-induced neurodegeneration and glial cell activation were not prevented by EAF treatment. CONCLUSION: The present study corroborates prior data that demonstrated the neuroprotective potential of T. catigua and extends these data by showing that the delayed administration of EAF postischemia effectively prevented memory impairment and decreased oxidative stress, dendritic deterioration, and synaptic protein loss within a TWE that ranged from 1 to 6 h. This specific TWE in preclinical research may have clinical relevance by suggesting the possible utility of this plant for the development of neuroprotective strategies in the setting of ischemic brain diseases. Another innovative finding of the present study was the possible neurotrophic/neuroplastic properties of T. catigua.

Postischemic fish oil treatment restores dendritic integrity and synaptic proteins levels after transient, global cerebral ischemia in rats.

We previously found that fish oil (FO) facilitated memory recovery in the absence of pyramidal neuron rescue after transient, global cerebral ischemia (TGCI). Fish oil preserved the expression of microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP-2), suggesting a relationship between dendritic plasticity and memory recovery that is mediated by FO after TGCI. The present study examined whether postischemic treatment with FO prevents ischemia-induced loss of dendritic processes in remaining pyramidal neurons. The effects of FO on neuroplasticity-related proteins were also examined after TGCI. Rats were subjected to TGCI (15 min, four-vessel occlusion model) and then received vehicle or FO (300 mg/kg docosahexaenoic acid) once daily for 7 days. The first dose was administered 4 h postischemia. Golgi-Cox staining was used to evaluate dentrict morphology in the pyramidal neurons of hippocampus (CA1 and CA3 subfields) and prefrontal cortex (PFC). Neuronal nuclei protein (NeuN), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), growth-associated protein 43 (GAP-43), synaptophysin (SYP), and postsynaptic density protein 95 (PSD-95) levels were measured by Western blot in both structures. Fifteen minutes of TGCI reduced consistently the length of dendrites, number of dendritic branches and dendritic spine density (average of 25%, 43%, 32%, respectively) 7, 14, and 21 days postischemia, indicating that they did not recover spontaneously. This outcome of TGCI was reversed by FO treatment, an effect that was sustained even after treatment cessation. The NeuN and BDNF protein levels were reduced in both the hippocampus and PFC, which were recovered by FO treatment. GAP-43 protein levels decreased after ischemia in the PFC only, and this effect was also mitigated by FO. Neither SYP nor PSD-95 levels were altered by ischemia, but PDS-95 levels almost doubled after FO treatment in the ischemic group. These data support our hypothesis that synaptic plasticity at the level of dendrites may at least partially underlie the memory-protective effect of FO after TGCI and strengthen the possibility that FO has therapeutic potential for treating the sequelae of brain ischemia/reperfusion injury.