A Study on the Behaviour of Huntington’s Chorea Rat Models on Rotarod: Treated with Withanolide a and the Ethanolic Extract of Withania Somnifera.

ABSTRACT

Background: Huntington’s disease (HD) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease named after George Summer Huntington who first described the disorder in 1872. Huntington’s disease is associated with basal ganglia degeneration which is called as the controlling center of extra pyramidal motor system that exerts an inhibitory effect on cerebral motor cortex. This will filters the unwanted motor movements and so refines the motor movements. Degeneration of neurons of basal ganglia reduces the inhibitory output and so leads to Huntington’s disease. At present there is no cure for this disease and trials are going on to treat symptoms, slow the progress of the disease and repairing the damages caused by disease. So there is a necessity to produce an animal model of HD by using a neurotoxin kainic acid for research purpose. By this study we produced a simple and effective rat model of HD which is more mimicking the human model of HD. We also analyzed the role of the extract of a herbal plant Withania somnifera and its active principle withanolide A in preventing the nervous system of HD rat models. Results: The activity of the herbal drug was analyzed by using rotarod apparatus. Both the drug group animals behaved normally in the rotarod against the lesion control animals and proved the efficacy of the drug employed. Conclusion: Present days treatments are mostly given to reduce the progress of HD and to treat the symptoms. Complete curation of HD is not up to the mark. But by taking these herbal drugs by daily basis we can prevent the occurrence of HD as these drugs are very good in neuroprotection.