Abstract:
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a devastating and advancing condition that predominantly impacts
the older people. AD is distinguished by the buildup of anomalous protein deposits in the brain,
which leads to the loss of cognitive function gradually. Till date, there is no existing treatment
for AD capable of effectively halting its advancement. For decades, plants, herbs and their
extracts have been employed in AD treatment. "Prunus dulcis," commonly known as Almond,
is of considerable scientific interest due to its noteworthy culinary and nutritional attributes. In
this research, the impact of orally administered Prunus dulcis on AD mouse models induced
by AlCl3 was examined, and the outcomes were compared with those of Donepezil, a standard
drug for AD treatment. The mice were categorized into six separate study groups, each
comprising eight animals. To evaluate the influence of AlCl3 (300mg/kg) and P. dulcis
(250mg/kg) treatments on anxiety and memory, a series of behavioral assessments including
the Elevated Plus Maze (EPM) test, Y-maze test, Novel Object Recognition (NOR) test and
Morris Water Maze (MWM) test were conducted. The findings revealed that the administration
of P. dulcis significantly decrease (p<0.01) anxiety levels following exposure to AlCl3.
Furthermore, the group receiving AlCl3 + P. dulcis extract demonstrated a substantial
enhancement (p<0.01) in spatial memory in comparison to the AlCl3-treated group.
Additionally, recognition memory was also significantly improved (p<0.0001) in the AlCl3 +
P. dulcis extract-treated group. The AlCl3 + P. dulcis extract-treated group also showed
substantial improvement (p<0.0001) in both learning and spatial memory in comparison to
AlCl3-treated group. Histopathological evaluation, conducted using Congo red staining,
revealed a remarkable reduction in amyloid beta (Aβ) plaque accumulation within the
hippocampus of mice treated with P. dulcis extract following exposure to AlCl3.
