English abstract
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease leading to gradual memory loss, cognitive impairment, decreased or poor judgment and change in personal daily activities and mood. The current treatment options are leading the side effects and studies suggest that diet could risk the disease status. Based on this we have aimed to find out the effect of dietary supplementation of Omani date palm fruits (2% and 4%) on behavioral abnormalities in APPsw/Tg2576 transgenic mice model of AD. Animals were divided into four groups (48 transgenic mice and 16 wild mice for control; n=16) and supplemented with or without dates fruits for 9 months. Behavior tests such as Morris Water Maze (MWM) and T-maze (to examine memory and learning abilities) elevated plus maze (EPM) and open field (to measure motor coordination and anxiety) and rotarod (to evaluate motor coordination) were done before and after treatment. Dates fruits supplementation (4%) to AD mice shown the significant improvement (P < 0.05) in terms of memory, learning, anxiety and motor coordination. This improvement offered by dates fruits could be due to the presence of active phytochemicals and natural antioxidants such as ferulic acid, etc. But the exact mechanism is still unclear and further extensive research needed.
Keywords: Alzheimer Disease, transgenic mice model, date fruit, behavioral analysis.
