Piracetam, a nootropic drug that has been clinically used for decades but remains enigmatic due to no distinct understanding of its mechanism of action. The present study aimed to investigate the role of caspase independent pathway in piracetam mediated neuroprotection. LPS administration caused significant alterations in oxidative stress related parameters like glutathione, glutathione reductase and increased lipid peroxidation. LPS administration also caused augmented expression of inflammatory cytokines and astrocytes activation. Piracetam treatment offered significant protection against LPS induced oxidative and inflammatory parameters and inhibited astrocytes activation. LPS administration caused augmented level of reactive oxygen species and depleted mitochondrial membrane potential which were attenuated with piracetam treatment. This study for the first time demonstrates the role of caspase independent death factors in piracetam induced neuroprotective effects in rat brain. Translocation of mitochondrial resident apoptosis inducing factor and endonuclease G to nucleus through cytosol after LPS administration was significantly blocked with piracetam treatment. Further, LPS induced DNA fragmentation along with up regulated Poly [ADP-ribose] polymerase 1 (PARP1) levels were also inhibited with piracetam treatment. Apoptotic death was confirmed by the cleavage of caspase 3 as well as histological alteration in rat brain regions. LPS administration caused significantly increased level of cleaved caspase 3, altered neuronal morphology and decreased neuronal density which were restored with piracetam treatment. Collectively our findings indicate that piracetam offered protection against LPS induced inflammatory responses and cellular death including its antioxidative antiapoptotic activity with its attenuation against mitochondria mediated caspase independent pathway.

Rotenone, a pesticide, causes neurotoxicity via the mitochondrial complex-I inhibition. The present study was conducted to evaluate the role of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in rotenone-induced neuronal death. Cell viability, cytotoxicity, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, nitrite level, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), and DNA damage were assessed in rotenone-treated neuro-2A cells. Protein levels of ER stress markers glucose regulated protein 78 (GRP78), growth arrest- and DNA damage-inducible gene 153 (GADD153), and phosphorylation of eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2 subunit α (eIF2-α) were estimated to assess the ER stress. To confirm the apoptotic death of neurons, mRNA levels of caspase-9, caspase-12 and caspase-3 were estimated. Further, to confirm the involvement of ER stress, neuro-2A cells were pretreated with ER stress inhibitor salubrinal. Co-treatment of antioxidant melatonin was also given to assess the role of oxidative stress in rotenone-induced apoptosis. Rotenone (0.1, 0.5, and 1 μM) treatment to neurons caused significantly decreased cell viability, increased cytotoxicity, increased ROS generation, increased expression of GRP78 and GADD, DNA damage and activation of caspase-12 and caspase-3 which were significantly attenuated by pretreatment of salubrinal (25 μM). Rotenone-induced dephosphorylation of eIF2α was also inhibited with salubrinal treatment. However, pretreatment of salubrinal did not affect the rotenone-induced increased nitrite levels, decreased MMP and caspase-9 activation. Co-treatment of antioxidant melatonin (1 mM) did not offer attenuation against rotenone-induced increased expression of caspase-9, caspase-12 and caspase-3. In conclusion, results indicated that ER stress plays a key role in rotenone-induced neuronal death, rather than oxidative stress. Graphical Abstract Pictorial presentation showed the involvement of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, increased reactive oxygen species (ROS), nitrite level, decreased mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), caspase activation and DNA damage in neuronal cells after rotenone treatment. ER stress inhibitor-salubrinal showed significant attenuation against most of the rotenone-induced adverse effects reflecting its key involvement in rotenone-induced neuronal death.

Intracerebroventricular (icv) injection of streptozotocin (STZ) in rat brain causes prolonged impairment of brain energy metabolism and oxidative damage and leads to cognitive dysfunction; however, its mechanistic specific effects on neurons are not known. The present study was conducted to investigate the STZ-induced cellular and molecular alterations in mouse neuronal N2A cells. The N2A cells were treated with STZ (10, 50, 100, 1000 μM) for 48 h, and different assays were performed. STZ treatment caused significant decrease in cell viability, choline levels, increased acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity, tau phosphorylation and amyloid aggregation. STZ treatment also led to low levels of glucose uptake, elevated mitochondrial stress, translocation of cytochrome c in cytosol, phosphatidylserine externalization, increased expression of caspase-3 and DNA damage. Co-treatment of clinically used drug donepezil (1 μM) offered significant protection against STZ induced neurotoxicity. Donepezil treatment significantly inhibited the STZ induced neurotoxicity, altered choline level, AChE activity, lowered glucose uptake and mitochondrial stress. However, the caspase-3 expression remains unaltered with co-treatment of donepezil. In conclusion, findings showed that STZ treated N2A cells exhibited the Alzheimer's disease (AD) related pathological markers which are attenuated with co-treatment of donepezil. Findings of the study suggested the potent use of STZ treated N2A cells as in vitro experimental test model to study the disease mechanism at cellular level.

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The present study was conducted to evaluate the involvement of endoplasmic reticulum stress in rotenone-induced oxidative neuronal death in rat brain. Rotenone (6 μg/3 μl) was administered intranigrally, unilaterally (right side) in SD rat brain. Neuronal morphology, expression level of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress markers like glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78), growth arrest and DNA damage-inducible gene 153 (GADD153), eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2α (p-eIF2α/eIF2α) and cleaved caspase-12 were estimated in the rat brain. Levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), reduced glutathione (GSH) and enzymatic activities of glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and glutathione reductase (GRd) were estimated to assess the rotenone induced oxidative stress. Apoptotic death of neurons was assessed by estimating the mRNA level of caspase-3. Rotenone administration caused altered neuronal morphology, decreased expression of TH, augmented ROS level, decreased level of GSH and decreased activities of GPx and GRd enzymes which were significantly attenuated with the pretreatment of ER stress inhibitor, salubrinal (1 mg/kg, intraperitoneal). Significantly increased levels of GRP78, GADD, dephosphorylated eIF2α and cleaved caspase-12 was also observed after rotenone administration, which was inhibited with the pretreatment of salubrinal. Rotenone-induced increased mRNA level of caspase-3 was also attenuated by pretreatment of salubrinal. Findings suggested that salubrinal treatment significantly inhibited the rotenone-induced neurotoxicity implicating that ER stress initiates the rotenone-induced oxidative stress and neuronal death.

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