Long-term dietary supplementation of pomegranates, figs and dates alleviate neuroinflammation in a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer's disease

PLoS One. 2015 Mar 25;10(3):e0120964. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0120964. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a devastating age-related neurodegenerative disease with no specific treatment at present. The APPsw/Tg2576 mice exhibit age-related deterioration in memory and learning as well as amyloid-beta (Aβ) accumulation, and this mouse strain is considered an effective model for studying the mechanism of accelerated brain aging and senescence. The present study was aimed to investigate the beneficial effects of dietary supplements pomegranate, figs, or the dates on suppressing inflammatory cytokines in APPsw/Tg2576 mice. Changes in the plasma cytokines and Aβ, ATP, and inflammatory cytokines were investigated in the brain of transgenic mice. Significantly enhanced levels of inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-2, IL-3, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-9, IL-10, TNF-α and Eotaxin activity were decreased by administration of the diet supplements containing pomegranates, figs, or dates. In addition, putative delays in the formation of senile plaques, as indicated by a decreasing tendency of brain Aβ1-40 and Aβ1-42 contents, were observed. Thus, novel results mediated by reducing inflammatory cytokines during aging may represent one mechanism by which these supplements exert their beneficial effects against neurodegenerative diseases such as AD.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adenosine Triphosphate / metabolism
  • Alzheimer Disease / metabolism
  • Alzheimer Disease / pathology*
  • Amyloid beta-Peptides / analysis
  • Animals
  • Brain / metabolism
  • Cytokines / blood
  • Dietary Supplements
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
  • Female
  • Ficus / chemistry*
  • Ficus / metabolism
  • Fruit / chemistry
  • Fruit / metabolism
  • Lythraceae / chemistry*
  • Lythraceae / metabolism
  • Mice
  • Mice, Transgenic
  • Phoeniceae / chemistry*
  • Phoeniceae / metabolism

Substances

  • Amyloid beta-Peptides
  • Cytokines
  • Adenosine Triphosphate

Grants and funding

This work was supported by a Research grant from the Research Council of Oman (RC/AGR/FOOD/11/01) to MME. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.