Research reportEffects of curcumin on short-term spatial and recognition memory, adult neurogenesis and neuroinflammation in a streptozotocin-induced rat model of dementia of Alzheimer's type

- Streptozotocin caused deficits in short-term spatial and recognition memory.
- Streptozotocin decreased adult neurogenesis and increased neuroinflammation.
- Curcumin prevented streptozotocin-induced impairments in recognition memory.
- Curcumin did not prevent streptozotocin-induced impairments in spatial memory.
- Curcumin did not improve adult neurogenesis and neuroinflammation.

Curcumin is a natural polyphenol with evidence of antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective properties. Recent evidence also suggests that curcumin increases cognitive performance in animal models of dementia, and this effect would be related to its capacity to enhance adult neurogenesis. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that curcumin treatment would be able to preserve cognition by increasing neurogenesis and decreasing neuroinflammation in the model of dementia of Alzheimer's type induced by an intracerebroventricular injection of streptozotocin (ICV-STZ) in Wistar rats. The animals were injected with ICV-STZ or vehicle and curcumin treatments (25, 50 and 100 mg/kg, gavage) were performed for 30 days. Four weeks after surgery, STZ-lesioned animals exhibited impairments in short-term spatial memory (Object Location Test (OLT) and Y maze) and short-term recognition memory (Object Recognition Test - ORT), decreased cell proliferation and immature neurons (Ki-67- and doublecortin-positive cells, respectively) in the subventricular zone (SVZ) and dentate gyrus (DG) of hippocampus, and increased immunoreactivity for the glial markers GFAP and Iba-1 (neuroinflammation). Curcumin treatment in the doses of 50 and 100 mg/kg prevented the deficits in recognition memory in the ORT, but not in spatial memory in the OLT and Y maze. Curcumin treatment exerted only slight improvements in neuroinflammation, resulting in no improvements in hippocampal and subventricular neurogenesis. These results suggest a positive effect of curcumin in object recognition memory which was not related to hippocampal neurogenesis.