Author/Authors :
Naserpour Farivar Taghi نويسنده , Nassiri-Asl Marjan نويسنده Department of Pharmacology, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin, Iran Nassiri-Asl Marjan , Najafipour Reza نويسنده Cellular and Molecular Research Centre, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin, Iran , Moghbelinejad Sahar نويسنده Cellular and Molecular Research Centre, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin, Iran , Rashvand Zahra نويسنده Department of Medical Genetics, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin, Iran , Mohammadi Ghazaleh نويسنده Departmant of Molecular Medicine, Qazvin University of
Medical Sciences, Qazvin, Iran , Khodabandehloo Fatemeh نويسنده Departmant of Molecular Medicine, Qazvin University of
Medical Sciences, Qazvin, Iran
Abstract :
Background Flavonoids are recently being recognized for their
important biological effects. Quercetin is a flavonoid that has several
pharmacological properties including anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective,
and anticonvulsant effects. Objectives This study was designed to
elucidate the role of quercetin in the gene expression of ionotropic
glutamate receptor subunits in kainic acid (KA)-induced seizure in mice.
Methods This experimental study was conducted on 56 male BALB/c mice.
Quercetin (50 and 100 mg/kg, intraperitoneally) was administered 7 days
before administration of KA. The hippocampi of the animals were removed
and used for molecular analysis 2 hours and 7 days after KA
administration. Results Pretreatment of mice with quercetin (100 mg/kg)
significantly enhanced the gene expression of GluR1 subunit of AMPA and
NR2A and NR2B subunits of NMDA only 7 days after KA administration
compared to the control and KA groups in the mice hippocampus (P
< 0.001, P < 0.001, and P < 0.05, respectively).
Conclusions Increment of gene expression of subunits of AMPA and NMDA
receptors by quercetin might explain its protective effect on synaptic
plasticity and memory.
