Chronic effects of anti-Alzheimer's drug, Galantamine hydrobromide on cholinergic system of mice brain

Abstract

Objectives

The present study emphasizes the prolonged effects of an anti-Alzheimer's drug, Galantamine hydrobromide (GHB) on morphometric, behavioural and cholinergic system in mice in the absence of the disease, AD.

Methods

One month old male albino mice, Mus musculus (20 ± 2 g) were selected as experimental model and GHB as the test drug. The ED₅₀ dose (5 mg/kg body weight) was given to experimental mice once in a day up to 180 days continuously.

Results

Observations on the morphometric aspects such as weight, size and also changes in the behaviour pattern of both control and experimental mice were recorded with help of the Morris water maze technique. Various constituents of the cholinergic system viz. acetylcholine content and acetylcholinesterase level were estimated in different regions of brain such as Olfactory Lobe, Hippocampus, Cerebral Cortex, Cerebellum, Pons-medulla and Spinal cord on selected days during the entire treatment schedule lasting for 180 days through standard biochemical assay techniques. From the results, it was evident that GHB exerted severe perturbations in the cholinergic system in all regions of brain on chronic exposure, thus eventually leading to behavioural changes.

Conclusions

From this, it was concluded that GHB, even though exerted positive effects on all the above mentioned parameters which were of course short-lived and during later stages, GHB exerted ill effects. In view of this, particularly, children are cautioned not to consume indiscriminately any kind of memory enhancing drugs or any formulated health drinks containing these chemicals either directly or indirectly for improvement of their cognitive skills.