Publications by authors named "Forough Foolad"

Remyelination refers to myelin regeneration, which reestablishes metabolic supports to axons. However, remyelination often fails in multiple sclerosis (MS), leading to chronic demyelination and axonal degeneration. Therefore, pharmacological approaches toward enhanced remyelination are highly demanded.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: A healthy daily diet and consuming certain nutrients, such as polyphenols, vitamins, and unsaturated fatty acids, may help neuronal health maintenance. Polyphenolic chemicals, which have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, are involved in the neuroprotective pathway. Because of their nutritional value, nuts have been shown in recent research to be helpful in neuroprotection.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a primary inflammatory demyelinating disease with different clinical courses and subtypes. The present study aimed to determine whether mitochondrial dysfunction and sirtuins 1 and 3, as metabolism and epigenetic modifying factors, might contribute to MS disease progression measured by physical disability and cognitive impairment.The volunteers (n = 20 controls, n = 59 MS) were recruited and assessed for cognitive function and disability scores; then, patients were clinically classified as relapsing-remitting (RR) in remission phase, RR in relapse phase, and secondary progressive MS.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We aimed to study how morphine affects synaptic transmission in the dentate gyrus and CA1 regions along the hippocampal long axis. For this, recording and measuring of field excitatory postsynaptic potentials (fEPSPs) were utilized to test the effects of repeated morphine exposure on paired-pulse evoked responses and long-term potentiation (LTP) at Schaffer collateral-CA1 (Sch-CA1), temporoammonic-CA1 (TA-CA1) and perforant pathway-dentate gyrus (PP-DG) synapses in transverse slices from the dorsal (DH), intermediate (IH), and ventral (VH) hippocampus in adult male rats. After repeated morphine exposure, the expression of opioid receptors and the α1 and α5 GABA subunits were also examined.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease, which leads to focal demyelination in the brain and spinal cord. Studies showed that iron released during the course of myelin breakdown exacerbates tissue damage, which is in agreement with the features of iron-dependent cell death, ferroptosis. Here, we aimed to investigate the possible contribution of ferroptosis in the demyelinated optic nerve, and to explore the effectiveness of ferroptosis inhibitor, deferiprone (DFP), on the extent of demyelination, inflammation and axonal damage.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In the last decade, there has been a great increase in methamphetamine hydrochloride (METH) abuse by pregnant women that exposes fetus and human offspring to a wide variety of developmental impairments that may be the underlying causes of future psychosocial issues. Herein, we investigated whether prenatal METH exposure with different doses (2 and 5 mg/kg) could influence neuronal cell death and antioxidant level in the different brain regions of adult male and female offspring. Adult male and female Wistar rats prenatally exposed to METH (2 or 5 mg/kg) and/or saline was used in this study.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Based on evidence there are accepted links among early nutrition, epigenetic processes, and cognitive performance. Almond as a nutritious food could exert neuroprotective effects and improve anxiety, learning, and memory. In the current study, female rats were fed with a diet containing 5% (w/w) almonds during the mating period (two days) and gestation period (21 consecutive days).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: ɣ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) facilitator valproic acid may be able to curb memory disruption induced by morphine exposure.

Objective: The effects of the GABA facilitator valproic acid on the behavioral tolerance induced by morphine were investigated. Then hippocampal-dependent tasks named spatial-working and short-term memory procedures using the Y-maze apparatus were examined in morphine tolerant rats.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Evidence has validated the prophylactic effects of exercising on different aspects of health. On the opposite side, immobilization may lead to various destructive effects causing neurodegeneration. Here, we investigated the association between exercising and mitochondrial quality for preventing the destructive effects of restraint stress in different rat brain regions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO) is an inflammatory demyelinating disease that mainly affects optic nerves and spinal cord. Besides, loss of motor and cognitive function has been reported as important symptoms of disease.

Objective: Here we investigated the mitochondrial dysfunction and metabolic alterations in NMO patients and evaluate their correlation with disease progress, disability and cognitive impairment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a challenging and disabling condition particularly in the secondary progressive (SP) phase of this disease. The available treatments cannot ameliorate or stop disease progression in this phase, and there is an urgent need to focus on effective therapies and the molecular pathways involved SPMS. Given the significant impact of neurodegeneration, autoimmunity and metabolic alterations in MS, focusing on the molecules that target these different pathways could help in finding new treatments.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Growing evidence sheds light on the use of flavonoids as the promising alternatives for the treatment of chronic conditions, including cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. Accordingly, in the present study, we aimed at evaluating the effects of oral intake of two structurally different flavonoids 5-hydroxy-6,7,4'-trimethoxyflavone (flavone 1) and 5,7,4'-trihydroxyflavone (flavone 2) on recognition memory, hippocampal protein level of immediate early gene cFos and mitochondrial dynamic markers in Amyloid β (Aβ)-injected rats. Recognition aspect of memory and level of proteins were measured using novel object recognition test and Western blot, respectively.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Several pathways involved in regulation of intracellular protein integrity are known as the protein quality control (PQC) system. Molecular chaperones as the main players are engaged in various aspects of PQC system. According to the importance of these proteins in cell survival, in the present study, we traced endoplasmic reticulum-specific markers and chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA)-associated factors as two main arms of PQC system in intra-hippocampal amyloid beta (Aβ)-injected rats during 10 days running.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In spite of characterizing the role of protein kinase A (PKA) in activating biochemical mechanisms, few studies have investigated the effects of PKA inhibitors on memory functions. In the present study, we used Pavlovian fear conditioning paradigm to evaluate memory alterations caused by two doses of H89 (as a conditional inhibitor of PKA) alone and in combination with amyloid-β (Aβ) in rats. Moreover, we used the Western blotting method to investigate the alterations in markers of transcription, oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptosis pathways involved in memory impairment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In the present study, the neuroprotective effect of 5-hydroxy-6,7,4'-trimethoxyflavone (flavone 1), a natural flavone, was investigated in comparison with another flavone, 5,7,4'-trihydroxyflavone (flavone 2) on the hippocampus of amyloid beta (Aβ)-injected rats. Rats were treated with the 2 flavones (1 mg/kg/d) for 1 week before Aβ injection. Seven days after Aβ administration, memory function of rats was assessed in a passive avoidance test (PAT).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The effects of mobile phone frequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF, 940 MHz) on a stable cell line (HEK293T) harbouring the firefly luciferase gene were evaluated. A waveguide exposure system with 1 W input power provided the mean specific absorption rate of ≈0.09 W kg(-1) in 35 mm Petri dishes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: We evaluated the acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitory and potential antioxidant effects of Salvia sahendica extract to investigate whether these molecules are involved in learning and memory improvement in rats injected with fibrillar amyloid beta (Aβ) peptide in the CA1 region of their hippocampus.

Methods: Rats were fed with S. sahendica (100 mg/kg/day) for 1 week before Aβ injection.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF