Saffron Extract Attenuates Anxiogenic Effect and Improves Cognitive Behavior in an Adult Zebrafish Model of Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has the highest mortality rates worldwide, yet effective treatment remains unavailable. TBI causes inflammatory responses, endoplasmic reticulum stress, disruption of the blood–brain barrier and neurodegeneration that lead to loss of cognition, memory and motor skills. S...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of molecular sciences Vol. 23; no. 19; p. 11600
Main Authors Chaoul, Victoria, Awad, Maria, Harb, Frederic, Najjar, Fadia, Hamade, Aline, Nabout, Rita, Soueid, Jihane
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.10.2022
MDPI
Subjects
Alzheimer's disease
Animal cognition
Anxiety
anxiolytic
Behavior
Blood-brain barrier
Cell signaling
Danio rerio
Disease prevention
Edema
Endoplasmic reticulum
Fear
fear disinhibition
Homology
Inflammation
Memory
memory performance
Motor skill
Neurodegeneration
Neuroprotection
PMS
Premenstrual syndrome
Regeneration
Saffron
Traumatic brain injury
Zebrafish
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has the highest mortality rates worldwide, yet effective treatment remains unavailable. TBI causes inflammatory responses, endoplasmic reticulum stress, disruption of the blood–brain barrier and neurodegeneration that lead to loss of cognition, memory and motor skills. Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is known for its anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects, which makes it a potential candidate for TBI treatment. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) shares a high degree of genetic homology and cell signaling pathways with mammals. Its active neuro-regenerative function makes it an excellent model organism for TBI therapeutic drug identification. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of saffron administration to a TBI zebrafish model by investigating behavioral outcomes such as anxiety, fear and memory skills using a series of behavioral tests. Saffron exhibited anxiolytic effect on anxiety-like behaviors, and showed prevention of fear inhibition observed after TBI. It improved learning and enhanced memory performance. These results suggest that saffron could be a novel therapeutic enhancer for neural repair and regeneration of networks post-TBI.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
These authors contributed equally to this work.
ISSN:1422-0067
1661-6596
1422-0067
DOI:10.3390/ijms231911600