Abstract

Objective: To examine Catechins’ protective potential for neurodegeneration in autism-induced rats while exploring new findings about the Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in serum. Methodology: This experimental study was conducted at Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences (LUMHS), Jamshoro from July 2019 to June 2020. A total of 25 Sprague-Dawley strain rats of healthy male gender aged seven weeks were used. These animals were distributed into five experimental groups based on Catechins doses by mouth for twenty-four days. The Primary Progressive Aphasia PPA+200 mg/kg Catechins treatment condition was used to induce the experimental group. We analysed BDNF level changes through ELISA method. The statistical evaluation employed ANOVA using the Post hoc Turkey test as the analysis method.
Results: We found that BDNF levels returned to normal levels within the groups who received Catechins treatment at III, IV, and V concentrations (compared to Group II), showing Catechins could potentially treat autism-like symptoms. The BDNF values measured in nano-grams per millilitre were Group I (13.1±0.3), followed by Group II (5.1±0.2) and Group III (9.8±0.3), Group IV (8.0±0.3), and then Group V (10.1±0.3). The BDNF concentration measured in Groups III, IV and V surpassed the BDNF level of Group II (PPA-induced) per results from a post-hoc Tukey's test at p

Key words: Catechins, BDNF, propionic acid (PPA), neurodegeneration, autism.