Protective Effect of Peanut Sprout Extract on Glutamate‐induced Neuronal Toxicity and Kainic acid‐induced Memory Loss

Abstract

Glutamate, one of major excitatory neurotransmitter in central nervous system, has been known to induce oxidative stress such as reactive oxygen species (ROS) by overstimulation of neuron. In this context, we investigated the neuroprotective effect of peanut sprout extract (PSE) against glutamate/kainic acid‐induced oxidative stress in the mouse hippocampal HT22 cells and ICR mice. PSE significantly increased the cell viability and decreased the ROS generation under glutamate‐induced oxidative stress in HT22 cells. PSE induced heme oxygenase‐1(HO‐1) known as a phase 2 enzyme and, its protective effect was abolished by HO‐1 and PI3K inhibitors. Furthermore, to examine the effect of PSE on learning and memory abilities in mice, kainic acid was treated to induce learning and memory loss, an analogue of glutamate. Passive avoidance and Y‐maze tests were performed to examine abilities of learning memory and spatial cognition respectively. The results showed that PSE had protective effect on kainic acid‐induced memory loss in mice, suggesting that PSE protects neuronal cells from glutamate/kainic acid‐induced oxidative stress through induction of HO‐1.Grant Funding Source: ASN