Research reportSalidroside ameliorates cognitive impairment in a d-galactose-induced rat model of Alzheimer's disease

- Up-regulation of Txnip and down-regulation of Trx were first detected in the d-gal-induced sub-acute aging model.
- Sal improved cognitive capacity of AD rats.
- Sal significantly inhibited inflammatory actions and depressed apoptosis-related proteins of AD rats.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate possible preventive effects of salidroside (sal) on a rat model of Alzheimer's disease and to explore its possible mechanism. Sub-acute aging was induced in male SD rats by subcutaneous injection of d-gal (120 mg/kg) for 42 days, and the rats were treated with sal (20, 40 mg/kg) or normal saline for 28 days after 14 days of d-gal injection. Morris water maze (MWM) test and step-down passive avoidance test were conducted to evaluate the cognitive function of the rats. The levels of inflammatory cytokines including tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) in hippocampus were assayed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to assess the anti-inflammatory effect of sal. Further, we estimated the expression levels of thioredoxin (Trx), thioredoxin interacting protein (Txnip/vitamin D3 up-regulated protein/thioredoxin binding protein-2), Bax, Bcl-2, caspase-9 and related-proteins of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) signaling pathway by western blot assay. It showed that administration of sal significantly attenuated all the d-gal-induced changes in the hippocampus, including cognitive impairment and neuroinflammation. These analytical results provides evidence that sal can improve cognitive capacity by inhibiting neuroinflammation and affecting apoptosis-related proteins in hippocampus.