The pharmacological stimulation of Nurr1 improves cognitive functions via enhancement of adult hippocampal neurogenesis

•Nurr1 activation by AQ increases proliferation and differentiation of adult hippocampal NPCs.•Nurr1 agonist upregulates phosphorylation of Akt and ERK1/2 in adult hippocampal NPCs.•Nurr1 activation enhances the adult hippocampal neurogenesis in vivo.•Administration of Nurr1 agonist results in improvement of cognitive functions in mice.

The nuclear receptor related-1 (Nurr1) protein plays an important role in both the development of neural precursor cells (NPCs) and cognitive functions. Despite its relevance, the effects of Nurr1 on adult hippocampal neurogenesis have not been thoroughly investigated. Here we used RT-PCR, western blot, and immunocytochemistry to show that adult hippocampal NPCs abundantly express Nurr1. We then examined the effect of Nurr1 activation on adult hippocampal NPCs using amodiaquine (AQ), an anti-malarial drug that was recently discovered to be a Nurr1 agonist. Cell proliferation assay showed that AQ significantly increased cell proliferation. AQ-treated NPCs showed increased levels of phosphorylation of Akt and ERK1/2 whereas AQ-treated Nurr1 siRNA-transfected NPCs showed no changes in those levels. Further immunocytochemical and immunohistochemical analyses confirmed the stimulating effect of Nurr1 agonist on the proliferation and differentiation of adult hippocampal NPCs both in vivo and in vitro. In addition to its effects on proliferation and differentiation of NPCs, AQ-treated mice showed a significant enhancement of both short- and long-term memory in the Y-maze and the novel object recognition test. These data suggest that activation of Nurr1 may enhance cognitive functions by increasing adult hippocampal neurogenesis and also indicate that Nurr1 may be used as a therapeutic target for the treatment of memory disorders and cognitive impairment observed in neurodegenerative diseases.