preparation and evaluation of mesoporous silica nanoparticle loaded by donepezil on learning and memory impairment induction in rat

Aim and background: disorders in learning and memory are important problems of human societies and memory plays an essential role in daily human life and is the basis of education and learning. in recent years, much attention has been paid to nanoparticles as carriers for drug delivery, including mesoporous silica nanoparticles (msns), which are a good choice of nanoparticles for drug delivery. in the present study, a system of msns loaded with donepezil was designed, which due to better drug delivery of donepezil to the brain. methods: msns were prepared using sol-gel method and then the nanoparticles were examined for physicochemical properties. the prepared nanoparticles were then loaded with donepezil. the study groups included the group receiving normal saline, scopolamine, donepezil and nanoparticles containing donepezil. the study of locomotor activity in the studied groups was performed by spatial memory test through morris water maze device and passive avoidance test by shuttle box. then the data were analyzed using spss 16 software and appropriate statistical tests. results and discussion: the results showed that scopolamine reduced the primary and secondary latency of the shuttle box test (p <0.05). the use of donepezil increased the secondary latency compared to the scopolamine group and the administration of donepezil with nanoparticles increased the secondary latency of the shuttle box test (p <0.05). administration of scopolamine increases the time spent on the mauritius water maze test, which donepezil can reduce (p <0.05). the use of nanoparticles with donepezil reduces the time spent on the morris water maze test in compared with the group receiving donepezil (p <0.05). conclusion: administration of msns loaded donepezil leads to an increase in the secondary latency of the shuttle box test and a reduction in the time elapsed in the morris water maze test, indicating an improvement in its performance in enhancing learning and memory versus using group receiving donepezil alone