Sun_2021_Mol.Nutr.Food.Res__e2101002

SCOPE: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease with phenomena of cognitive impairments. Oxidative stress and cholinergic system dysfunction are two widely studied pathogenesis of AD. Dihydromyricetin (DMY) is a natural dihydroflavonol with many bioactivities. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of DMY on cognitive impairment in D-galactose (D-gal) induced aging mice. METHODS AND RESULTS: Mice were intraperitoneally injected with D-gal for 16 weeks, and DMY was supplemented in drinking water. The results showed that DMY significantly improved D-gal-induced cognitive impairments in novel object recognition and Y-maze studies. H&E and TUNEL staining showed that DMY could improve histopathological changes and cell apoptosis in mice brain. DMY effectively induced the activities of CAT, GSH-Px and SOD, and reduced MDA level in mice brain and liver. Furthermore, DMY reduced cholinergic injury by inhibiting the activity of AChE in mice brain. In vitro studies showed that DMY was a non-competitive inhibitor of AChE with IC50 value of 161.2 microg mL(-1) . CONCLUSION: DMY alleviated the cognitive impairments in D-gal-induced aging mice partly through regulating oxidative stress and inhibition of acetylcholinesterase. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.