Ayurvedic formulations amalaki rasayana and rasa sindoor improve age-associated memory deficits in mice by modulating dendritic spine densities
Authors
Bhupender Verma
Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, 208016, India
Priyanka Sinha
Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, 208016, India
Subramaniam Ganesh
Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, 208016, India
Keywords:
Ageing, Traditional medicine, Cognition, Dendritic spine, Episodic memory, Spatiotemporal memory
Abstract
Emerging reports indicate that age-associated cognitive decline begins with the transition from young to middle-aged, and this neurological condition manifests mainly due to the progressive impairment in the adaptive homeostasis process. Moreover, cognitive decline is associated with neurodegenerative changes in older adults.
Objective
Previous studies have shown that the administration of Ayurvedic formulations restores the homeostatic pathways and ameliorates neurodegeneration in animal models of neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, we wanted to check whether Ayurvedic formulations can rescue or delay the age-associated cognitive decline in middle-aged mice.
Material and methods
We fed two-month-old mice with amalaki aasayana (AR, 1025 mg/kg per day) or rasa sindoor (RS, 41 mg/kg per day) mixed in a gelatin-based jelly for six months. Mice eating regular chow or blank jelly served as control. Subsequently, we looked at the improvements in the cognitive and behavioural traits of the treated animals. We have also analysed the effect of these formulations on the dendritic processes of neurons, glial activation, and the formation of corpora amylacea.
Results
We found a significant improvement in episodic, working- and reference-spatiotemporal memory in animals fed on AR or RS. Microscopic analyses revealed a significant increase in the dendritic spine density in the apical dendrites of the hippocampal pyramidal neurons. The treatment, however, did not significantly affect gliosis and corpora amylacea in the brains.
Conclusions
Both AR and RS showed beneficial effects on memory functions of the middle-aged mice, possibly due to their effect on the dendritic spine densities. Our findings provide strong evidence to conclude that formulations AR and RS can prevent or delay the onset of age-associated cognitive decline.
Keywords: Ageing, Traditional medicine, Cognition, Dendritic spine, Episodic memory, Spatiotemporal memory
Abbreviations: AR, amalaki rasayana; CJ, control jelly; EPM, elevated plus maze; GFAP, glial fibrillary acidic protein; Iba1, ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule 1; IHC, immunohistochemistry; NOR, novel object recognition; OFT, open field test; PAS, periodic acid-Schiff; RAM, radial arm maze; RS, rasa sindoor; TST, tail suspension test
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