DEEP BRAIN STIMULATION OF THE ENTORINAL CORTEX IMPROVES COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT IN AN ANIMAL MODEL OF AGING

With an increase in the aging population and the prevalence of various cognitive disorders, there is an increasing need to find therapeutic measures. Therefore, several non-pharmaceutical approaches are currently being tested, including deep brain stimulation (DBS). Given that the entorinal cortex (EC) is a critical modulator of the hippocampal neural network the aims of this study were to investigate the effects of chronic administration of D-galactose (D-gal) and the EC-DBS on cognitive functions and the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression level in the sub-fields of the hippocampus in behaviorally characterized rats. Male outbred albino rats – aged 3 months served as subjects at the start of experimentation. Rats were randomly assigned to prepare four experimental groups: control; D-gal - with chronic administration (for 8 weeks) of D-gal; D-gal/I - with electrode implantation; D-gal/S - with electrical stimulation. The results showed a statistically significant reduction in BDNF expression levels in the hippocampal CA1, CA3 and DG subfields in rats administrated D-gal (groups: D-gal and D-gal/I). Rats in these groups showed impaired long-term spatial memory, novel object recognition memory. Present study showed that stimulation of the LEC causes an increase the expression level of BDNF in the DG (70%) and in the CA3 (18%): rats of these group exhibited enhanced cognitive functions. Overall, these results suggest that chronic EC-DBS may serve as an effective therapeutic target for aging-related memory disorders.
Supported by the funding from the SRNSFG: Grant #-FR-23-18847