Prolong treatment with Trans-ferulic acid mitigates bioenergetics loss and restores mitochondrial dynamics in streptozotocin-induced sporadic dementia of Alzheimer's type

Alzheimer disease has been well associated with mitochondrial dysfunctions. Numerous studies have reported changes in the activity of oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) complexes and mitochondrial dynamics. Recently, dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp-1) has been conceived as a potential therapeutic target as well. We have examined the effect of prolonged treatment of Trans-ferulic acid on streptozocin-induced sporadic dementia of Alzheimer's type. We have found the Ferulic Acid (FA,100 mg/kg) can rescue memory and learning problems and also show significant antioxidant effect while preserving morphology of pyramidal cell layer in hippocampi. Furthermore, FA treatment has shown mitigation in intracerebral-ventricular streptozocin (ICV-STZ) induced bioenergetics loss and dynamic changes by regulating peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-alpha (PGC-lalpha) protein levels in nucleus and hence, mitigating exacerbation of Drp-1 dependent mitochondrial fission and apoptosis by alleviating loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (Delta psi m), downregulating cytochrome-c release into the cytosol by limiting mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) opening concomitant increase in caspase3 activation, BAX expression and DNA fragmentation along with downregulating glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) expression. FA also restored protein expression of mitofusin2 (Mfn2) a core component of mitochondrial fusion, necessary for mitophagy. We conclude that FA acid may have the propensity to mitigate mitochondrial dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease on prolonging dietary supplementation.