Exploiting Citrus aurantium seeds and their secondary metabolites in the management of Alzheimer disease

Doha H Abou Baker; Bassant M M Ibrahim; Nabila S Hassan; A F Yousuf; Souad El Gengaihi

doi:10.1016/j.toxrep.2020.06.001

Exploiting Citrus aurantium seeds and their secondary metabolites in the management of Alzheimer disease

Toxicol Rep. 2020 Jun 5:7:723-729. doi: 10.1016/j.toxrep.2020.06.001. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Doha H Abou Baker¹, Bassant M M Ibrahim², Nabila S Hassan³, A F Yousuf⁴, Souad El Gengaihi¹

Affiliations

¹ Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Department. National Research Centre, Dokki, Giza. PO 12622, Egypt.
² Pharmacology Department. Medical Research Division. National Research Centre, Dokki, Giza, PO 12622, Egypt.
³ Pathology Department. Medical Research Division. National Research Centre, Cairo, PO 12622, Egypt.
⁴ Physiology Department. Faculty of Medicine for Girls, Al-Azhar University, Egypt.

Abstract

Fruit by-products are considered nature's golden gift for human health and a good starting point to discover new drugs depending on the fact that they contain millions of bio-active compounds that are responsible for therapeutic activities. In this context, the main goal of this study is to recycle Citrus aurantium (C. aurantium) seeds to produce pharmaceutical molecules to be used in the prevention of the progressive neurological damage associated with Alzheimer disease (AD). Donepezil (0.75 mg/kg), hesperidin (125 and 250 mg/kg) and limonoids (50 and 100 mg/kg) were used for treatment of rats for 2 weeks prior to concomitant administration of AlCl₃ for three successive weeks. Protection against cognitive deterioration was observed among study group with insignificant difference from normal control group and significant difference from positive control group in the Y-Maze test. On the other hand, treatment with both doses of hesperidin (125 and 250 mg/kg) and high dose of limonoids only (100 mg/kg) produced improvement in psychological state, observed by significant increase in ambulation frequency in comparison to positive control group, however it was not as frequent as normal group, as it was significantly less than normal group in the open field test. Regarding acetylcholine esterase (AChE) and beta-amyloid (β amyloid) levels, the effect of limonoids low dose was the best as it didn't have a significant effect when compared to normal control, also hesperidin in both doses showed insignificant effects on β amyloid levels when compared to normal control group. Our results encourage the use of C. aurantium seeds which are wasted in huge amounts, as Alzheimer prophylactic food additives.

Keywords: Acetylcholine esterase; Alzheimer disease; Beta-Amyloid protein; Citrus aurantium seeds; Flavonoids; Lemonoids; Open field; Tau protein; Y-Maze.