FT-Raman study of protein misfolding and renaturation in brain hippocampus

Objectives The mechanism of β-amyloid (Aβ) formation, aggregation in AlCl3 induced AD in hippocampus rat model brain tissue, the curative and the protective effects of Lepidium sativum (LS) water extract were assessed after 8 weeks by FT-Raman spectroscopy and animal behaviour test. Materials and methods Adult male Albino Wistar rat were divided into; control, AD, curative, protective, and LS groups (n = 20). For statistical analysis, the comparison and the significant differences between the Raman spectral data among the tested groups, Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) was carried. Results HCA segregate strongly between all groups under investigation. However, it clustered control & Curative group in one side and AlCl3, Protective group and LS group on the other side. Raman decomposed amide I band showed a great variation in the percentage area of the sub-bands between the control & AlCl3 group and between all LS treated groups & AlCl3 group. The significant variations were precisely in the α-helix, parallel and antiparallel Aβ-sheets and random coil structure. We report that LS treatment not only reversed and decreased the amount of the misfolded protein developed after AlCl3 administration for 8 weeks, but also restored the behaviour attitude decreased significantly in AlCl3 group compared to the control and unexpectedly in protective group in animal behaviour test. Conclusion This study gave a promising highlight on the therapeutic uses of LS that can manage Aβ formation and protein re-naturation on AD rat model.