Neurosteroid allopregnanolone attenuates cognitive dysfunctions in 6-OHDA-induced rat model of Parkinson’s disease

• The effects of allopregnanolone were assessed on the PD-induced cognitive disorders.
• Moris water maze, novel object recognition and object location tasks were used.
• Allopregnanolone significantly improved the cognitive impairment induced by 6-OHDA.
• Present study strongly supports the procognitive property of allopregnanolone in PD.

Cognitive deficits have an extensive influence on the quality of life of the Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients. Previous studies have shown that lack of steroid hormones have an important role in the development of PD. Therefore, in this study the effects of neurosteroid allopregnanolone (Allo) on the PD-induced cognitive disorders were assessed. To simulate PD, 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) was injected into the rat’s substantia nigra. Allo (5 and 20 mg/kg, orally) were administered on the day after the 6-OHDA injection and continued during the entire treatment period (two months). Cognitive behaviors were assessed by Moris water maze (MWM), novel object recognition (NOR) and object location tasks. The data indicated that Allo significantly improved the 6-OHDA-induced cognitive impairment which revealed by the reduction of time spent to find out platform (escape latency) and the increase of retention time in MWM test and also with increase in the exploration index in NOR and object location tasks. Present study strongly supports the pro-cognitive property of allopregnanolone in PD.