Effect of co-administration of lovastatin and folic acid on cognitive impairment due to bilateral electrical lesion of nucleus basalis magnocellularis in the Alzheimer\'s disease model in adult male rats

Abstract

Introduvtion: Alzheimer's disease is one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases in the brain. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of lovastatin and folic acid on cognitive deficit by induced lesion in nucleus basalis magnocellularis Methods: In this experimental study, 56 male Wistar rats were randomly divided into 8 groups: (7 rat in each group): control(intact), Nucleus basalis magnocellularis (NBM) lesion group, which received electrically- induced lesion (0.5 m A, 3s) in NBM, Sham group ( the electrode was impaled in to the NBM with no lesion), lovastatin group (NBM lesion + lovastatin 1mg/kg), folic acid group (NBM lesion+ folic acid 5mg/kg), interaction group( NBM lesion+ lovastatin-folic acid), saline group( NBM lesion + saline) and Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) group (NBM lesion + DMSO 5%). Acquisition and retention testing was done by using an eight-radial arm maze, in which, the patterns of arm entries in each group for calculating working memory errors, reference memory error and latency were recorded. Data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and Tukey's post hoc test Results: Results showed that there was a significant difference between the control and lesion groups in the parameters of the reference memory error, working memory error and elapsed time (P˂ 0.05). Co-administration of  lovastatin - folic acid resulted in a reduction in the reference and working memory error and the time spent in the eight-arm radial laser maze compared with lesion group Conclusion: According to the results, co-administration of folic acid and lovastatin had a positive effect on spatial memory of Alzheimer's rats