Abstract Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a major public health concern worldwide, with an increasing prevalence in the elderly population. AD is a progressive neurological disorder of multi-faceted origin, where factors such as genetic mutations, biochemical changes, along with inflammatory cascade and soluble beta amyloid (Aβ) peptide, are thought to play a pivotal role in synaptic failure and neuronal death, ultimately leading to cognitive and neuropsychiatric decline in patients suffering from the disease. At present, there is no long-term cure for the disease, although there is access to pharmacotherapy that might improve cognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms early in the course of the disease. The current pharmacological therapy for AD only provides symptomatic relief for a very short period of time. It is therefore of utmost importance to discover other pharmacological strategies that might delay the development of AD and slow down the disease progression in terms of cognitive decline and neurodegeneration. Elucidating the pathogenic mechanisms involved in AD neuropathogenesis is a major goal to find efficacious disease-modifying treatments. What remains to be understood completely are the intracellular pathways affected by Aβ protein which may lead to neurodegeneration in AD. Since phosphorylation and dephosphorylation mechanisms are crucial in the β-amyloid precursor protein (APP) metabolism, protein kinase C has emerged as one of the key regulators of the APP metabolism. Indeed, dysregulation of the PKC pathway might play a role in the intracellular mechanisms of neurodegeneration, but their effective involvement still remains elusive. Therefore, a detailed analysis of PKC pathways in established models of AD neurodegeneration is necessary and will form part of this work. Fucoidin is a sulphated polysaccharide extracted from edible brown seaweed, which has been shown to exhibit anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant effects as well as being a neuroprotectant in various inflammatory diseases including hypoxic ischemia, atherosclerosis and Heyman nephritis. Therefore, fucoidin may have an inhibitory effect on the inflammatory mechanisms of AD. Little is known, however, about the effect of fucoidin on AD. Animal models of AD are extremely valuable for the discovery and development of new treatments. Rodents have been one of the preferred models for pharmacological and behavioural studies in AD. In this thesis, first aim was to establish a non-transgenic Aβ-induced AD model in rats. AD was induced utilising a published protocol which involved the bilateral injection of aggregated Aβ (1-42) into the CA3 subfield of the hippocampus in rat brain. Behavioural assessment with well defined tools such as the Morris water maze and T-maze were utilised to assess the impairment in spatial working memory in rats. Behavioural impairments along with increased astrocytosis and microgliosis were observed in this particular Aβ-induced AD model. In the established disease model, fucoidin (50 mg/kg/day and 25 mg/kg/day) and ibuprofen (50 mg/kg/day) were shown to provide a partial protective effect on impairment in memory function in the MWM behavioural task in rats treated prior to disease initiation and throughout the course of the study. In addition, the histopathological and quantitative analysis of AD brain sections showed a marked reduction in reactive glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and microglia in fucoidin (low and high dose) and ibuprofen treated Aβ injected rats compared to untreated Aβ injected rats. These results indicate that fucoidin may serve as a possible effective therapeutic approach to improve AD symptoms. There is strong evidence that PKC α and ε signalling pathways regulate important molecular events in memory impairment and neurodegenerative pathophysiology in AD. A possible neuroprotective mechanism of fucoidin involving attenuation of an Aβ-induced decrease in PKC ε phosphorylation using cultured SHSY5Y neuroblastoma cells as a model system was examined. Co-administration of fucoidin (2μM and 5 μM) with Aβ (1μM) abolished the inhibitory effect of Aβ on the phosphorylation of PKCε in a concentration-dependent manner as revealed by western blot analysis. These findings suggest that a possible mechanism underpinning the neuroprotective effect of fucoidin may be through prevention of A-induced inhibition of PKC phosphorylation and may serve as a possible therapeutic approach to improve AD symptoms. As cellular events that involve PKC are affected by Aβ in in vitro systems, it was necessary to examine whether PKC activity is also modulated by the Aβ treatment in vivo in our Aβ-peptide induced AD model. Therefore, the next aim was to assess the potential for fucoidin use as an intervention therapy in an established disease stage in the Aβ-peptide induced AD model. Intervention with fucoidin (50 mg/kg/day, i.p.) in the established disease stage partially prevented Aβ (1-42) mediated damage with respect to memory impairment, neuroinflammation and PKC ε phosphorylation in the in vivo AD model consistent with the in vitro findings in SHSY5Y cells.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/286205 |
| Creators | Aarti Patel |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Detected Language | English |
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