Brahmi herbal drink mitigates aluminium chloride induced cognitive impairments

Aluminium chloride (AlCl3) is neurotoxic and has been proposed to be one of the environmental factors responsible for neurodegenerative disease like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disorders. It also causes learning and memory deficit. Bacopa monniera is well known for its memory enhancing property in traditional Indian system of medicine. In the present investigation we aim to evaluate cognitive-enhancing and neuromodulatory property of brahmi herbal drink (BHD), a nutraceutical product from Bacopa monniera extract. BHD was evaluated for physicochemical, sensory attributes and stability studies. Overall acceptability of BHD was good according to hedonic scale/ratings. Stability of the drink is for 6 months without losing its activity. Further, cognitive enhancing and neuromodulatory propensity of BHD was evaluated against AlCl3 treatment in rats. Administration of AlCl3 (100 mg/kg) daily for 23 days significantly increased cognitive impairment as evaluated in elevated plus maze (EPM) and Morris water maze (MWM) tests. BHD supplementation improved cognitive ability by decreasing the transfer and escape latency of EPM and MWM tests respectively. Our results further elucidate that BHD supplementation decreased acetylcholine esterase activity and nitric oxide levels by down-regulating AChE and iNOS expression respectively. BHD supplementation showed it neuroprotective efficacy by up-regulating BDNF expression. AlCl3 induced lipid peroxidation and reactive oxygen species generation was significantly alleviated by BHD and restored antioxidant status levels. All these results demonstrated the cognitive-enhancing and neuromodulatory potential of BHD in counteracting the damage inflicted by AlCl3 on rat brain

Hydrothermal from — Geology to Nanotechnology and Nanogeoscience (Part — II)

Hydrothermal process from a pure geologic science has now become one of the fast-emerging processing technologies to synthesize nanomaterials in the laboratory. Today it is an advanced technological tool, which facilitates to obtain nanomaterials and nanoparticles with desired size, shape, quality and functionality. In fact, hydrothermal technique has its bearing on the nature-inspired or geo-mimetic processes that are being employed extensively in the laboratory. The natural hydrothermal processes are acting ever since earth came into existence, and leading to the formation of a large variety of minerals, rocks and ores. Earth is a blue planet of the universe, where water is a major component which plays an important role in the formation of geological materials and hydrothermal circulation has always assisted by bacteria, photochemical and other related activities. The synthesis of advanced technological materials often occurs in the presence of biomolecules, proteins, organic ligands, DNA and amino acids. An understanding of nanogeoscience is becoming very relevant in the current context and is crossing into almost all the branches of geology including palaeoecology, mineralogy, environmental geology, energy geology, geochemistry, etc. Similarly, the hydrothermal processes in nature cover several branches of geology whether it is the origin of ores, minerals, rocks, but also life on the earth. In the present review, the authors discuss all the above aspects in detail with a future perspective of the field. Also, the authors have described the evolution of hydrothermal process from pure geology to the nanotechnology, nanogeoscience, nano-geopolymers, etc., with specific examples and depicted its relevance to the geologic science

Nutrition and nutraceuticals in neuroinflammatory and brain metabolic stress: Implications for neurodegenerative disorders

Background and Objective: A steep rise in the incidences of neurodegenerative disorders could be the combined effect of several non-genetic factors such as increased life expectancy, environmental pollutants, lifestyle, and dietary habits, as population-level genetic change require multiple generations. Emerging evidence suggests that chronic over-nutrition induces brain metabolic stress and neuroinflammation, and are individually known to promote neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Huntington’s disease (HD). Although the association of metabolic disorders such as diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and atherosclerosis with the dietary habits is well known, neuronal implications of diet and nutritional factors is still in its infancy. Transcriptomics and proteomics-based studies support the view that nutraceuticals target multiple neuroprotective pathways in a slow but effective manner without causing severe adverse effects, and may represent the future of tackling neurodegenerative disorders

Soluble epoxide hydrolase inhibitor, APAU, protects dopaminergic neurons against rotenone induced neurotoxicity: Implications for Parkinson's disease.

Epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs), metabolites of arachidonic acid, play a crucial role in cytoprotection by attenuating oxidative stress, inflammation and apoptosis. EETs are rapidly metabolised in vivo by the soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH). Increasing the half life of EETs by inhibiting the sEH enzyme is a novel strategy for neuroprotection. In the present study, sEH inhibitors APAU was screened in silico and further evaluated for their antiparkinson activity against rotenone (ROT) induced neurodegeneration in N27 dopaminergic cell line and Drosophila melanogaster model of Parkinson disease (PD). In the in vitro study cell viability (MTT and LDH release assay), oxidative stress parameters (total intracellular ROS, hydroperoxides, protein oxidation, lipid peroxidation, superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidise, glutathione reductase, glutathione, total antioxidant status, mitochondrial complex-1activity and mitochondrial membrane potential), inflammatory markers (IL-6, COX-1 and COX-2), and apoptotic markers (JNK, phospho-JNK, c-jun, phospho-c-jun, pro and active caspase-3) were assessed to study the neuroprotective effects. In vivo activity of APAU was assessed in Drosophila melanogaster by measuring survival rate, negative geotaxis, oxidative stress parameters (total intracellular ROS, hydroperoxides, glutathione levels) were measured. Dopamine and its metabolites were estimated by LC-MS/MS analysis. In the in silico study the molecule, APAU showed good binding interaction at the active site of sEH (PDB: 1VJ5). In the in vitro study, APAU significantly attenuated ROT induced changes in oxidative, pro-inflammatory and apoptotic parameters. In the in vivo study, APAU significantly attenuates ROT induced changes in survival rate, negative geotaxis, oxidative stress, dopamine and its metabolites levels (p < 0.05). Our study, therefore, concludes that the molecule APAU, has significant neuroprotection benefits against rotenone induced Parkinsonism