Study of the effect of arginine glutamate on cognitive processes in food-deprived rats

Abstract

Annotation. In 2022, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the aggravation of the food crisis, as a result of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the share of the world's starving population has increased to 9.8% of the world's population. According to the literature, metabolic and neuroendocrine disorders during starvation have a negative impact on cognitive processes and social behavior. The aim of the study was to justify experimentally the feasibility of using glutargin for the correction of cognitive disorders in rats with partial food deprivation. The work includes such research methods as modeling of food deprivation according to the patented method, assessment of behavioral reactions and emotional state of rats using the "Open field" method, and study of working memory functions by the method of recognizing new objects. Statistical processing of the obtained results was carried out using non-parametric methods of analysis (MANOVA-test) using Statistica 6.0 software. Differences at p < 0.05 were considered significant. Partial food deprivation led to a decrease in the body weight of rats (about 30%, p<0.05), and an increase in the level of anxiety, which is evidenced by an increase in the average indicators of grooming by 53.7% and the average value of vertical activity by almost three times compared to the control group, a decrease in horizontal activity by 64.07%, which may be the result of a decrease in research activity and a decrease in interest to the environment. In contrast, in rats treated with glutargin, scores of anxiety were almost constant throughout the experiment. The test of recognition of new objects conducted at the end of the treatment shows that glutargin statistically significantly increased the coefficient of discrimination (CD), which indicated the restoration of nonspatial memory disorders that occurred in rats with experimental food deprivation. The obtained results are an experimental basis for further clinical studies devoted to the possibility of the practical use of glutargin in the complex treatment of patients with nutritional deficiency.