EVALUATION OF THE ANTI-STRESS PROPERTY OF RUTIN AND ITS UNDERLYING MECHANISMS OF ACTION IN MICE

ABSTRACT

Sustained adverse psychosocial stress has been known to cause neuropsychiatric pathologies. Social defeat stress (SDS) is a valid model for inducing psychosocial stresses associated with neurobiological consequences. Rutin, has been shown to possess neuroprotective function and is thought to be beneficial in neurodegenerative diseases. This study aimed to investigate the neuroprotective effect of rutin on neuro-behavioral and neuro-biochemical changes in SDSexposed mice. Six groups of Swiss mice (n = 7) received treatment for 14 days. Groups 1 and 2 had 10 mL/kg of normal saline, groups 3-5 had 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg, i.p. of rutin, respectively, while group 6 had 50 mg/kg, i.p. of ginseng – the standard drug. Groups 2-6 were further subjected to SDS treatment from days 8 – 14. Thirty minutes after the last treatment, and the induction of SDS on day 14, animals in all the groups were assessed behaviourally. After the behavioural assessments, all animals were weighed, and blood glucose was checked and animals were sacrificed, and samples collected for various spectrophotometric and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) biochemical and neurotransmitter assays in specific-brain regions (striatum, prefrontal cortex and hippocampus). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and analysis of variance (ANOVA). For multiple comparisons, Bonferroni post-hoc test (Graphpad Prism, 5.0) was used and the level of significant difference was statistically taken at p < 0.05 for all tests.