Neuroepigenetic Changes in DNA Methylation Affecting Diabetes-Induced Cognitive Impairment.

Chronic diabetic conditions have been associated with certain cerebral complications, that include neurobehavioral dysfunctional patterns and morphological alterations of neurons, especially the hippocampus. Neuroanatomical studies done by the authors have shown decreased total dendritic length, intersections, dendritic length per branch order and nodes in the CA1 hippocampal region of the diabetic brain as compared to its normal control group, indicating reduced dendritic arborization of the hippocampal CA1 neurons. Epigenetic alterations in the brain are well known to affect age-associated disorders, however its association with the evolving diabetes-induced damage in the brain is still not fully understood.

Enriched Environment Rescues Impaired Sleep-Wake Architecture and Abnormal Neural Dynamics in Chronic Epileptic Rats.

Sleep dysfunctions in epilepsy increase the burden of seizures and cognitive impairments. Seizures and certain anti-seizure drugs (ASDs) can affect sleep quality, leading to excessive daytime sleepiness and poor cognitive performance. Therefore, it is imperative to develop non-pharmacological strategies to curb epilepsy and related sleep dysfunction.

Enriched environment ameliorates chronic temporal lobe epilepsy-induced behavioral hyperexcitability and restores synaptic plasticity in CA3-CA1 synapses in male Wistar rats.

Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is the most common form of focal epilepsies. Pharmacoresistance and comorbidities pose significant challenges to its treatment necessitating the development of non-pharmacological approaches. In an earlier study, exposure to enriched environment (EE) reduced seizure frequency and duration and ameliorated chronic epilepsy-induced depression in rats.

The potential involvement of cholinergic system in finasteride induced cognitive dysfunction.

Objective: Neurosteroids are known to exert diverse functions in the brain. 5α-reductase (5α-R), a rate-limiting enzyme involved in the biosynthesis of neurosteroids is inhibited by finasteride. Clinical studies suggest that administration of finasteride causes the emergence of affective symptoms and cognitive dysfunction.