Outcome of resveratrol and resveratrol with donepezil combination on the β-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer’s disease

The goal of this research was to study the effect of different doses of resveratrol (RS) and RS with donepezil (DPZ) on the deposition of amyloid beta (Aβ) and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) in colchicine-induced Alzheimer’s disease (AD) brain. The study included three months old male Albino Wistar rats and consisted of six animal groups: AD model (group 1), treatment groups, RS 10 mg/kg body weight (group 2), RS 20 mg/kg body weight (group 3), RS 10 mg/kg body weight along with DPZ 1 mg/kg body weight (group 6), prophylaxis groups, RS 10 mg/kg body weight (group 4) and RS 20 mg/kg body weight (group 5). In the treatment groups, RS was given for 7 consecutive days from the day of induction of AD, and in the prophylaxis groups, we started RS 7 days even before the induction of AD and continued for seven days after the induction. The number of Aβs and NFTs at the frontal region, cornu ammonis (CA) 1,2,3,4 and dentate gyrus regions of hippocampus were evaluated. The immunohistochemical analysis was performed by using mouse anti-β-amyloid antibody for the Aβ plaques and polyclonal rabbit anti-human tau for the tau-positive neurons. The present study observed the accumulation of Aβ plaques and tau-positive neurons in the AD model. However, their numbers were significantly decreased in the treatment groups (p < 0.001). The best results were observed when RS 10 mg was given prophylactically (p < 0.01) and RS along with DPZ (p < 0.001), suggesting the neuroprotective effect of RS and its synergistic effect with the DPZ.