Quercetin improves homocysteine-induced learning and memory impairment in rats via AMPK/mTOR

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative brain disease. At present, the main treatment strategy is to alleviate certain symptoms, but the potential mechanisms of AD are not fully understood, and there is a lack of effective treatment methods in clinical practice. Quercetin (QT) can significantly protect neurodegeneration by inhibiting oxidative stress and inflammation, and has the potential to play a greater role in clinical practice. Therefore, this study aims to explore the potential mechanism of QT based on the AMPK/mTOR pathway in improving the learning and memory abilities of AD rats.For this purpose,we established an AD rat model by injecting Hcy into the tail vein.After successful model validation, Quercetin and AMPK inhibitor were gavaged.Then, the role of the AMPK/mTOR pathway in QT protected nerve regeneration was determined using Morris water maze, Nissl staining, Western blot and immunohistochemistry.We observed that QT significantly improved the learning and memory abilities in rat models with AD, as demonstrated by the short learning latency and greater times of travel across the platform. Nissl staining showed that QT could reduce neurological Apoptosis and amenorrate neurological implementation .Western blot and immunohistochemistry staining showed that questionnaire significantly increased p-AMPK, while reducing p-mTOR and p-Tau .In addition, the application of specific AMPK inhibitor can effectively reverse these changes, further enhancing the improvement effect of QT inhibition on AD, Thereby improving the learning and memory improvement induced by Hcy in AD model rates, and thus improving learning and memory abilities.