Poster Presenter

Bacopa monniera masks amnesic effects of NO synthase inhibitor independent of NMDA receptor mediated LTP induction
Anand A., Saraf M.K., Prabhakar S.

Rationale Amnesia may result from ageing, chronic drug abuse or head injury and there are limited therapeutic strategies to treat this condition. We have shown that Bacopa monniera, a memory enhancing drug cited in Indian ancient system of medicine, Ayurveda can reverse both diazepam and scopolamine induced amnesia in mice. In order to understand the downstream effects of B. monniera, this study was designed to investigate how B.monniera antagonizes MK801, an NMDA receptor antagonist and N_ω-Nitro-L-arginine (L-NNA), a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor.

Objectives The objective of study was to study the effect of B. monniera standardized extract on MK 801 and L-NNA induced amnesia in mice using morris water maze.

Material and Methods We compared the degree of reversal B. monniera imparts on MK801 and L-NNA induced anterograde amnesia in experimental mice. All mice were first subjected to muscle incoordination test followed by water maze tasks. The biochemical and histological investigations were also performed on mouse brain of control and drug treated groups.

Results Our data revealed that L-NNA induced anterograde amnesia was significantly reversed by B. monniera, however, it did not attenuate the MK 801 induced anterograde amnesia. B. monniera significantly increased calmodulin (CaM) and pCREB/CREB levels when the whole brain lysates of B. monniera pretreated amnesic mice were compared with those of L-NNA treated mice.

Conclusion We conclude that antiamnesic effect B. monniera on L-NNA induced amnesia may be mediated by NO pathyway involving CaM, which is required for LTP sustenance, and earlier reported by us in the scopolamine model. These studies evoke interest in their future development as potential antiamnesic drugs.