Abstract
Objective
There is a relationship between non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The rostromedial tegmental nucleus (RMTg) is activated can enhance NREM. Therefore, our experiment was designed to investigate the effects of activation of RMTg by chemical genetic techniques on APP/PS1 mice learning and memory.
Materials and Methods
After the AAV-hSyn-hM3Dq-mCherry virus was injected into the RMTg nucleus, CNO solution was intraperitoneally injected to activate RMTg. The new object test and Morris water maze were used to determine the learning and memory level; T2-weighted imaging (T2WI) scanning was performed to analyze the volume of hippocampus and entorhinal cortex of each group; The virus transfection status was determined by laser confocal microscope and use immunohistochemical detection to observe the deposition of Beta Amyloid 1–42 (Aβ42).
Results
Activation of RMTg by chemical genetic techniques can reduce the escape latency and increase discrimination index (RI) and the number of crossing platform; Activation of RMTg by chemical genetic techniques reduced the atrophy of the entorhinal cortex. Aβ42 deposition in the brain was decreased after activation of RMTg.
Conclusion
Activation of the RMTg nucleus by chemogenetic techniques can improve the learning and memory impairment in APP/PS1 mice.
Acknowledgments
This study was funded by Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province (NO.2021J01954), Medical Innovation Project of Fujian Province (NO. 2021CXA040) and Fujian Province Health and Family Planning Scientific Research talents Training Project youth scientific research project (NO.2018-2-75).
Disclosure
The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest in this work.