Aging is associated with detrimental cellular and cognitive changes, making it an important public health concern; yet, many of these changes may be influenced by nutritional interventions. The natural sesquiterpene β-caryophyllene (BCP) has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects that are mediated by cannabinoid type-2 receptor activation, and these actions promote neuroprotection in different animal models that involve a cognitive damage. Consequently, whether chronic administration of BCP might prevent the age-related cellular and cognitive damage in a model of aging induced by chronic d-galactose (GAL) consumption was assessed here. Male BALB/c mice were administered BCP (10 mg/kg, oral), GAL (300 mg/kg, intraperitoneal), or GAL+BCP, and long-term memory and cognitive flexibility were evaluated in the normal and the reverse phases of Morris water maze test. In addition, immunohistochemistry was performed on prefrontal and hippocampal brain slices to detect glial acidic fibrillary protein and DNA oxidation. Although GAL administration reduced cognitive flexibility (P = .0308), this functional damage was not reversed by administering BCP. However, GAL administration also elevated the total number of astrocytes and their interactions in the hippocampus, and increasing DNA oxidation in the prefrontal cortex. BCP administration impeded the rise in the total number of astrocytes (P = .0286) and the DNA oxidation (P = .0286) in mice that received GAL. Hence, although BCP did not improve cognitive flexibility, it did produce a neuroprotective effect at the molecular and cellular level in the GAL model of aging.
Keywords: CB2 receptor agonist; biological aging; cognitive flexibility; phytocannabinoid; β-caryophyllene.