NEUROPHARMACOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF PAEONIFLORIN ON COGNITIVE FUNCTION IN TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY MOUSE MODEL

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major reason of mortality around the world. In this investigation the effect of Paeoniflorin (PF) was tested against TBI in mice. Two doses 5mg and 40mg of PF were used. The design of the experiment included five groups of Balb/c mice. Except the sham group the four groups (TBI, TBI+ IBU, TBI+PF 5mg and TBI+PF 40mg) were induced with the focal head injury using the weight-drop technique. Neurological severity score (NSS), measurement of edema and acetylcholine levels, behavioral tests like Morris water maze (MWM), Novel object recognition (NOR), social interaction test, Elevated plus maze (EPM), Light and dark box (LDB) were conducted. The result of each test was presented by a graph. The NSS results were recorded at intervals of 4h and 72h showing a significant difference in the severity score of sham group and TBI+PF (40mg) group. Edema was determined in the hippocampus and the cortex at 48h and 288h both revealing no significant difference. Acetylcholine levels were measured in hippocampus and cortex at 48h and 288h, depicting significantly more amount of acetylcholine levels in TBI+PF (40mg) group. The graph of Morris water maze test revealed an improved spatial learning in mice injected with 40mg of paeoniflorin while no improvement was recorded in the TBI group. The novel object recognition test revealed no significant difference. Social behavior test revealed an increase in social abilities of mice for both 5mg and 40mg dosage. In elevated plus maze test the paeoniflorin dosage reduced the anxiety levels compared to TBI group. Similarly, light and dark box test also revealed that 5mg dosage of paeoniflorin reduces anxiety in mice. Further studies on such anti-inflammatory drugs may result in reducing the mortality rate in TBI patients.