Contilisant, a permeable, antioxidant, and neuroprotectant agent, showing high nM affinity at H3R and excellent inhibition of the monoamine oxidases and cholinesterases, is an affine and selective S1R agonist in the nanomolar range, based on the binding affinity and functional experiment, a result confirmed by molecular modeling. In addition, contilisant significantly restores the cognitive deficit induced by Aβ in the radial maze assay in an in vivo Alzheimer's disease test, comparing very favorably with donepezil.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease which is characterized by progressive memory loss, the accumulation of β-amyloid peptide (Aβ) (mainly Aβ), and more recently, by neuroinflammation, which has been highlighted as playing a central role in the development and progress of AD. This study utilized 100-day-old Balb/c mice for the induction of an AD-like dementia model. The animals were administered with Aβ oligomers (400 pmol/site) or artificial cerebrospinal fluid (ACSF) into the left cerebral ventricle. Twenty-four hours after intracerebroventricular administration, the animals were treated with minocycline (50 mg/kg, via oral gavage) for 17 days. The animals' locomotion was evaluated using the open-field test. The spatial memory was tested using the Y-maze, and the aversive memory was evaluated using the inhibitory avoidance task. Treatment with minocycline was shown to improve both spatial and aversive memories in mice that were submitted to the dementia model. In addition, minocycline reduced the levels of Aβ and microglial activation in the animals that received the administration of Aβ oligomers. Moreover, the results suggest that the decrease in microglial activation occurred because of a reduction in the levels of toll-like receptors 2 (TLR2) content, and its adapter protein MyD88, as well as a reduction in the levels of the protein NLRP3, which is indispensable in the assembly of inflammasome. These observations were evaluated via immunohistochemistry and confirmed using the Western blot analysis. Treatment with minocycline had no effect in preventing apoptotic morphologic alterations of the neurons. Thus, the anti-inflammatory effect of minocycline involves TLR2 receptors and NLRP3, besides being beneficial by ameliorating memory impairments. Graphical Abstract ᅟ.

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Folic acid (FA) supplementation is important during pregnancy to avoid malformations in the offspring. However, it is unknown if it can affect the offspring throughout their lives. To evaluate the offspring, female mother rats (Dam’s) were separated into 5 groups: Four groups received the AIN-93 diet, divided into control and FA (5, 10 and 50 mg/kg), and an additional group received a FA deficient diet, the diet was performed during pregnancy and lactation. We evaluated the female offspring of these Dam’s (at 2-and 18-months-old). The aged offspring fed with FA deficient diet presented habituation, spatial and aversive memory impairment and the FA maternal supplementation prevented this. The natural aging caused an increase in the TNF-α and IL-1β levels in the hippocampus from 18-months-old offspring. FA maternal supplementation was able to prevent the increase of these cytokines. IL-4 levels decreased in the prefrontal cortex from aged control rats and FA prevented it. FA deficiency decreased the levels of IL-4 in the hippocampus of the young offspring. In addition, natural aging and FA deficiency decreased BDNF levels in the hippocampus and NGF levels in the prefrontal cortex and FA supplementation prevent it. Thus, the present study shows for the first time the effect of FA maternal supplementation on memory, cytokines and neurotrophins in the aged offspring.

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