IMR Press / JIN / Volume 18 / Issue 4 / DOI: 10.31083/j.jin.2019.04.1204
Open Access Original Research
A novel squaramide compound alleviates cognitive deficits through activation of Akt and Erk1/2 in a rat model of vascular dementia
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1 Department of Physiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan, 442000, P. R. China
2 Department of General Medicine, Taihe Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan, 442000, P. R. China
3 Department of Cardiology, Taihe Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan, 442000, P. R. China
4 Hubei Key Laboratory of Wu dang Local Chinese Medicine Research, Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan, 442000, P. R. China
5 Research Institute of Neuroregeneration & Neurorehabilitation, and Department of Neurosurgery, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, P. R. China
6 Hubei Key Laboratory of Embryonic Stem Cell Research, Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan, 442000, P. R. China
*Correspondence: qwanwh@hotmail.com (Qi Wan); iq2277@hbmu.edu.cn (Zhifeng Zhang)
These authors contributed equally.
J. Integr. Neurosci. 2019, 18(4), 401–408; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.jin.2019.04.1204
Submitted: 7 October 2019 | Accepted: 16 December 2019 | Published: 30 December 2019
Copyright: © 2019 Yuan et al. Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
Abstract

Vascular dementia is the second most common type of dementia, yet no effective treatment for it exists. Akt and Erk1/2 signaling pathways are involved in neuronal survival. It has been reported that bisperoxovanadium (pyridin-2-squaramide), a novel squaramide compound, protects against cerebral ischemia injury via activation of Akt and Erk1/2. Here, the potential neuroprotective effect of bisperoxovanadium is shown for the first time in a model of vascular dementia induced in 6-month-old male Sprague-Dawley rats by two-vessel occlusion injury applied to 6-month-old. Following this lesion, bisperoxovanadium (pyridin-2-squaramide) (1 mg/kg/day) was intragastrically administered for four successive weeks. The Morris water maze test estimated cognitive function. The morphological examination was performed by hematoxylin-eosin staining. Akt and Erk1/2 protein abundance were assessed by Western blot. Results showed that bisperoxovanadium (pyridin-2-squaramide) attenuated not only cognitive dysfunction but also alleviated histopathological changes in rats with vascular dementia. Moreover, bisperoxovanadium (pyridin-2-squaramide) ultimately reduced neuronal apoptosis represented by the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio in the CA1 (cornu ammonis 1) region of the hippocampus. Importantly, the levels of p-Akt (ser473) and p-Erk1/2 (Thr202/Tyr204) were increased after treatment with bisperoxovanadium (pyridin-2-squaramide). It is concluded that the novel squaramide compound bisperoxovanadium (pyridin-2-squaramide) might be effective in the treatment of vascular dementia by activation of Akt and Erk1/2.

Keywords
Neuroprotection bisperoxovanadium (pyridin-2-squaramide)
vascular dementia
Akt
Erk1/2
rat model
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