• Investigating the chronic effects of curcumin and niosome curcumin on Alzheimer's rats by marble burying and object recognition tests
  • Elahe Asani,1,* Homeira Hatami,2 Gholamreza Hamidia,3
    1. University of Tabriz
    2. University of Tabriz
    3. University of Tabriz


  • Introduction: Introduction: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases for which there are currently no effective drugs to prevent and treat. Exposure to aluminum chloride increases neurotoxicity and oxidative stress in the brain and causes memory disorders, and antioxidants counteract these effects. The curcumin antioxidant(CUR), which is a natural polyphenol, has anti-inflammatory properties and improves memory and learning by crossing the blood-brain barrier, and therefore can be used to treat neurological diseases associated with oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptosis.In this study, we investigated the long-term effect of curcumin antioxidant and niosome curcumin on memory and learning and stress and anxiety levels of Alzheimer's rats by object recognition and marble burying tests.
  • Methods: Materials and methods: In this study, 56 male rats were randomly divided into 3 groups (n=8): 1)control (28 days of saline), 2)sham (14 days of ethanol), 3)aluminum chloride (Alzheimer's)(28 days), 4)aluminum chloride + curcumin, 5)curcumin (14 days), 6) niosome curcumin (7 days), 7) aluminum chloride + niosome curcumin. (Injection of drugs is intraperitoneal). Memory and learning were evaluated by the object recognition test on the 14th day, and stress and anxiety were evaluated by the marble burying test on the last day of injection.
  • Results: Results: The data analysis showed that the curcumin and Noisome Curcumin groups buried more marbles compared to the Alzheimer's group (p<0.001) and the sham group had a significant increase compared to the control group (p<0.001). The Alzheimer's group was not significant in comparison with the control group (p>0.05) and also the noisome curcumin and curcumin group had a significant increase compared to the control group (p<0.001). In the object recognition test, the preference index (d3) in the Alzheimer's groups Noisome Curcumin and curcumin recipients had a significant decrease compared to the control and Alzheimer's groups (p<0.001), and Alzheimer's and control groups and Curcumin noisome had a significant increase compared to the sham group (p<0.001).
  • Conclusion: Discussion and suggestions: The analysis of the behavioral data obtained from the marble burying test and the object recognition test showed that Alzheimer's disease causes memory and learning disorders and causes stress and anxiety in male rats, and curcumin and noisome curcumin improve these disorders.
  • Keywords: Alzhiemer, Marble Burying Test, Object Recognition Test, antioxidant, niosome