Influence of cooking on the neuroprotective properties of pepper (bird pepper and cayenne pepper) varieties in scopolamine‐induced neurotoxicity in rats

Abstract

Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) are often characterized by multifactorial clinical features such as loss of memory function, protein aggregation, progressive loss of neurons, cognitive impairment, neuronal cell dysfunction and/or death (Adefegha et al., 2016). AD, the leading cause of dementia is characterized by impairments in neurotransmission systems, including the cholinergic, purinergic, and monoaminergic systems. Acetylcholine (ACh) is key to the cholinergic arrangement of neurotransmission. ACh is enzymatically broken down by cholinesterases (ChEs). Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) degrades the neurotransmitter ACh and subsequently reduces the ACh level in the brain (Changeux, 2010). AChE inhibitors can increase ACh level in cholinergic synapses, which have shown promise in the alleviation of neurodegenerative diseases. To this end, many studies have