Silk Protein, Sericin as a Cognitive Enhancer in Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) a well-known neurodegenerative disorder characterized by formation of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles and by loss of neurons is the most common type of Dementia, also called as Senile Dementia of Alzheimer Type (SDAT) which frequently occurs in elder people. Globally it was noticed that every year 3, 60, 000 new cases were admitted with severe AD. AD was first described by a German Psychiatrist and Neuropathologist, Dr. Alois Alzheimer in 1906 and was named after him. According to Cholinergic hypothesis, AD is caused by reduced synthesis of the neurotransmitter ACh, where in the AChE levels were increased which causes damage to the cholinergic neurons finally leading to cognitive impairments. At present, AChE inhibitors, Antiamyloid vaccine and Vitamin E are recommended to treat AD but long-term exposure to these drugs causes side effects. Since treatment of AD with single drug is not a realistic option due to it’s the complicated nature, combination therapy of AChE inhibitor along with Antioxidants is felt necessary to treat Alzheimer’s disease effectively. Therefore, it is worthwhile to identify new and selective AChE inhibitors with an Antioxidant nature from natural source. Hence, in the present investigation, the natural bioproduct of silk viz. the Silk Protein, Sericin, having several beneficial qualities viz., Anti-bacterial, Antioxidant, Wound healing, Anti-tumor activity etc. has been chosen to evaluate its potential as “Cognitive enhancer”, AD-induced rat model by conducting experiments on Morphometric changes along with Learning and Memory efficiency; on Cholinergic system, Antioxidant system and Histological aspects in selected brain regions of control and experimental rats. The results in the present study on the Cholinergic system revealed that while ACh content was significantly elevated, AChE level was inhibited in all selected brain regions of rats treated with As a corollary to these biochemical aspects, the Histological Studies in control and different groups of experimental rat brain demonstrated that Sericin could effectively reverse the AD-induced damage in neurons of CC and HC regions, the centres for most of the cognitive functions. From all these findings, it was finally concluded that, Sericin can be used as a potential cognitive enhancer in general and Alzheimer’s disease in particular. neuronal histopathology consists of Neurofibrillary Tangles (NFT) comprised of hyperphosphorylated collections of the microtubuleassociated protein tau and Senile Plaques made up of aggregated Amyloid β-protein (Aβ) fibrils found in neocortex, hippocampus and in several subcortical areas, NFT density which correlates with disease duration and severity of dementia. The main causes of Alzheimer’s are include Age, Family history, Hereditary factors, Down’s syndrome, Whiplash or Head injuries, Aluminium, Poor education, Consumption of high fat and high calorific diet, Smoking, Cardiovascular disorders, Hyper cholesterolemia, Diabetes mellitus, Menopause and sedentary life style. The Biochemical basis of AD was explained by three different Hypotheses, they are: Cholinergic hypothesis, Amyloid hypothesis and Tau hypothesis. According to Cholinergic hypothesis, AD is caused by reduced synthesis of the neurotransmitter ACh, wherein the AChE levels were increased which causes damage to the cholinergic neurons finally leading to cognitive impairments. At present, AChE inhibitors, Anti-amyloid vaccine and Vitamin E are recommended to treat AD but long-term exposure to these drugs causes side effects. Since treatment of AD with single drug is not a realistic option due to it’s the complicated nature, combination therapy of AChE inhibitor along with Antioxidants is felt necessary to treat Alzheimer’s disease effectively. *Corresponding author: Yellamma K, Department of Zoology, Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, India, Tel: 81-853-20-2260; E-mail: [email protected] Received March 14, 2014; Accepted October 01, 2014; Published October 06, 2014 Citation: Yellamma K (2014) Silk Protein, Sericin as a Cognitive Enhancer in Alzheimer’s Disease. J Alzheimers Dis Parkinsonism 4: 163. doi: 10.4172/21610460.1000163 Copyright: © 2014 Yellamma K. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation: Yellamma K (2014) Silk Protein, Sericin as a Cognitive Enhancer in Alzheimer’s Disease. J Alzheimers Dis Parkinsonism 4: 163. doi: 10.4172/2161-0460.1000163