Abstract

VISCUM ALBUM ENHANCES BLOOD SERUM BRAIN-DERIVED NEUROTROPHIC FACTOR (BDNF) LEVEL IN EXPERIMENTAL MODEL OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

*Edem Edem Ekpenyong, Oremosu Ademola Ayodele, Enye Linus

ABSTRACT

Background: Viscum album (Mistletoe) is a semi-parasitic plant with a documented broad spectrum of therapeutic actions, which include anticancer, immunomodulatory, antidiabetic, antiepileptic and anticonvulsant propensities. The Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), a protein encoded by the BDNF gene belongs to the neurotrophin family of growth factors; and happens to be the most extensively distributed neurotrophin in the brain where its activation is critical for neuronal survival and neurogenesis. Disturbed BDNF levels have been implicated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer‟s disease, a neurodegenerative disorder with progressive cognitive deficits and neuronal loss as major hallmarks. The present study was thus designed to investigate the ability of Viscum album to stimulate, as it were, the production of BDNF in the Alzheimer‟s disease Model. Results: Aluminium chloride (150mg/kg body weight) administered daily for twenty one days significantly decreased BDNF levels compared to the Control. Chronic treatment with Viscum album extract (100mg/kg, orally) for a period of 21days, simultaneously with AlCl3 administration; and also beginning 10days after AlCl3 administration, significantly triggered an increase in BDNF serum levels, and attenuated aluminium chloride-induced neurotoxicity. Conclusion: The present study indicates BDNFstimulating and neuroprotective activities of Viscum album against aluminium chlorideinduced neurodegeneration compared to the control mice (p < 0.05). Results of this novel study demonstrate that Viscum album has neuroprotective, therapeutic, as well as BDNFstimulating capacity against aluminium chloride-induced Alzheimer‟s disease Model.

Keywords: Aluminium Chloride, Alzheimer?s disease, BDNF, Neurodegeneration, Viscum album.