Baicalein ameliorates cognitive deficits in epilepsy-like tremor rat

Baicalein has been shown to possess various pharmacological actions. The current work was designed to assess the neuroprotection of baicalein against cognitive deficits in epilepsy-like tremor rat (TRM). Epileptic characteristics and memory functions were assessed by electroencephalograms recording and Morris water maze test, respectively. The changes of oxidative indicators including malondialdehyde (MDA), catalase (CAT), Cu/Zn-superoxide dismutase (Cu/Zn-SOD), Mn-SOD, glutathione (GSH), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX) and 8-isoprostane were measured using corresponding commercial kits. Real-time RT-PCR and immunoassay were employed to detect activities of various inflammatory mediators such as NF-κB p65, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-10. Western blot analysis was performed to determine heat shock protein (HSP) 70 and mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) (including ERK, JNK and p38) proteins. Our results illustrated that baicalein significantly ameliorated epileptiform activity and cognitive deficits in TRM. Besides, reduced oxidative stress and inflammatory responses were also found in TRM treated with baicalein. Furthermore, there were evident alterations of HSP70 and MAPK cascades at protein levels after 14-day pretreatment with baicalein. It was concluded that the neuroprotective effect of baicalein against cognitive dysfunction might be associated with suppressing oxidative stress, inhibiting inflammation and mediating HSP70 as well as MAPK cascades in absence-like TRM.