Study of the protective effects of nootropic agents against neuronal damage induced by amyloid-beta (fragment 25-35) in cultured hippocampal neurons

Background alzheimer's disease (ad) is a common neurodegenerative disorder,in which progressive neuron loss,mainly in the hippocampus,is observed. the critical events in the pathogenesis of ad are associated with accumulation of β-amyloid (aβ) peptides in the brain. deposits of aβ initiate a neurotoxic cascade leading to apoptotic death of neurons. aim of this study was to assess a putative neuroprotective effects of two nootropic drugs: piracetam (pir) and levetiracetam (lev) on aβ-injured hippocampal neurons in culture. methods primary cultures of rat's hippocampal neurons at 7 day in vitro were exposed to aβ(25-35) in the presence or absence of nootropics in varied concentrations. flow cytometry with annexin v/pi staining was used for counting and establishing neurons as viable,necrotic or apoptotic. additionally,release of lactate dehydrogenase (ldh) to the culture medium,as a marker of cell death,was evaluated. results aβ(25-35) caused concentration-dependent death of about one third number of hippocampal neurons,mainly through an apoptotic pathway. in drugs-containing cultures,number of neurons injured with 20 μm aβ(25-35) was about one-third lesser for pir and almost two-fold lesser for lev. when 40 μm aβ(25-35) was used,only lev exerted beneficial neuroprotective action,while pir was ineffective. conclusions our results suggest the protective potential of both studied nootropics against aβ-induced death of cultured hippocampal neurons with more powerful neuroprotective effects of lev. © 2014 institute of pharmacology,polish academy of sciences.