ABSTRACT
Alzheimer as a prevalent central nervous system disease has no definitive treatment yet. So, regarding to herbal medicine recommendation, an important candidate herb, Crocus sativus L. extract [CSE] was investigated on ICY STZ-induced learning, memory, and cognitive impairment in male rats. The Effect of aqueous crocus sativus L. extract on intracerebroventricular streptozotocin-induced cognitive deficits in male rat. We use STZ injection as a model for Alzheimer's disease. For this purpose due to an animal stereotaxic surgery, the rats were injected with STZ-icv bilaterally, on 1st and 3[rd] days [3 mg/kg]. The learning and memory performance was assessed using passive avoidance paradigm, and for spatial cognition evaluation, Y maze task was used. Sixty male rats were divided to following groups: 1- Control, 2- Sham [which received only ACSF], 3-Control + CSE, 4-STZ, 5-STZ+CSE. The STZ-injected rats received CSE [30 mg/kg;i.p.]. These rats were treatment one day before surgery for three weeks and then were subjected to learning and memory tests. In Y maze test the non repetitive percentage of arm entrance were considered as alternation behavior [intelligence quotient]. Data in Passive avoidance task was the latent period [s] for passing from light to dark room due to adaptation periods. However, for the passive avoidance test nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test was used, which if significant, was followed by Mann-Whitney U-test for pair-wise comparisons. Data for the Y maze task were evaluated by Wilcoxon's rank sum test It was found that CSE-treated STZ-injected rats showed higher correct choices and lower errors in Y maze than vehicle-treated STZ-injected rats. In addition, CSE administration significantly attenuated learning and memory impairment in treated STZ-injected group in passive avoidance test. These results demonstrated the effectiveness of CSE in preventing the cognitive deficits caused by STZ-icv in rats and its potential in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease