caryophyllene and Dementia

Dementia is a neurodegenerative disorder majorly evidenced by cognitive impairment. Although there are many types of dementia, the common underlying etiological factors in all the types are neuro-inflammation or aging induced apoptosis. β-caryophyllene, a cannabinoid type-2 receptor agonist, has been reported to have promising neuroprotective effects in cerebral ischemia and neuro-inflammation.. In the present study, we evaluated the effects of β-caryophyllene against animal models of dementia whose etiology mimicked neuro-inflammation and aging.. Two doses (50 and 100 mg/kg of body weight) of β-caryophyllene given orally were tested against AlCl. β-caryophyllene, at both doses, showed significant improvement in memory when assessed using parameters like target quadrant entries, escape latency and path efficiency in the Morris water maze test for spatial memory. In the doxorubicin-induced chemobrain model, β-caryophyllene at 100 mg/kg significantly elevated acetylcholinesterase and catalase levels and lowered lipid peroxidation compared to the disease control. In the novel object recognition task, β-caryophyllene at 100 mg/kg significantly improved recognition index and discrimination index in the treated animals compared to the disease control, with a significant increase in catalase and a decrease in lipid peroxidation in both hippocampus and frontal cortex. However, in the D-galactose-induced mitochondrial dysfunction model, β-caryophyllene failed to show positive effects when spatial memory was assessed. It also failed to improve D-galactose-induced diminished mitochondrial complex I and II activities.. Hence, we conclude that β-caryophyllene at 100 mg/kg protects against dementia induced by neuro-inflammation with no effect on neuronal aging induced by mitochondrial dysfunction.

Topics: Aging; Aluminum Chloride; Animals; Cognitive Dysfunction; Dementia; Disease Models, Animal; Galactose; Hippocampus; Lipid Peroxidation; Male; Maze Learning; Mitochondrial Diseases; Neuroinflammatory Diseases; Neuroprotective Agents; Oxidative Stress; Polycyclic Sesquiterpenes; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley