P4‐159: Taurine in drinking water recovers learning and memory in the adult APP/PS1 mouse model of Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a lethal progressive neurological disorder affecting the memory. Recently, US Food and Drug Administration mitigated the standard for drug approval, allowing symptomatic drugs that only improve cognitive deficits to be allowed to accelerate on to clinical trials. Our study focuses on taurine, an endogenous amino acid found in high concentrations in humans. It has demonstrated neuroprotective properties against many forms of dementia. In this study, we assessed cognitively enhancing property of taurine in transgenic mouse model of AD. We orally administered taurine via drinking water to adult APP/ PS1 transgenic mouse model for 6 weeks. Taurine treatment rescued cognitive deficits in APP/PS1 mice up to the age-matching wild-type mice in Y-maze and passive avoidance tests without modifying the behaviours of cognitively normal mice. In the cortex of APP/PS1 mice, taurine slightly decreased insoluble fraction of Ab. While the exact mechanism of taurine in AD has not yet been ascertained, our results suggest that taurine can aid cognitive impairment and may inhibit Ab-related damages.

The GABAergic system as a therapeutic target for Alzheimer's disease

“…PTX, a GABA A R antagonist, was shown to block the neuroprotective effect of taurine, indicating that this is a GABA A R-mediated mechanism. Taurine has also been demonstrated to reverse learning and memory dysfunction in the Y-maze and passive avoidance tests in an AD mouse model (Kim et al 2014), providing further evidence for the potential of this drug as a therapeutic agent in AD. Despite its ability to improve cognition,its neuroprotective effect in inhibiting Ab formation and its good tolerability profile, taurine has been identified as an inducer of tau polymerization, one of the main hallmarks of AD (Santa-Maria et al 2007).…”

Effect of Major Royal Jelly Proteins on Spatial Memory in Aged Rats: Metabolomics Analysis in Urine

“…It was well-known that supplementation of taurine can improve memory . Taurine, involved in cysteine and taurine metabolism pathways, is a ubiquitous neuromodulator, playing a role in neuroprotection and ameliorating age-dependent weakening in memory acquisition and retention through alterations of the GABAergic system . It could protect synaptic plasticity associated with memory loss .…”