RESEARCH JOURNAL OF PHARMACY AND TECHNOLOGY

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a geriatric neurodegenerative disorder, a common cause of dementia among older adults. Artemisinin and its derivatives (artesunate) have been proved to affect neuroinflammation at different concentrations. This study was aimed to investigate the effect of artesunate in aluminium chloride (AlCl₃) induced AD. Objectives: To evaluate the effect of artesunate on learning and memory in experimentally induced AD in albino Wistar rats. Materials and Method: AD was induced in the rats by administration of 100 mg/kg bw. of aluminium chloride orally. Thirty albino Wistar rats were divided in to five groups (n=6), the groups I and II received distilled water (negative control) and AlCl₃ (positive control) respectively for 60 days, groups III, IV and V were treated with AlCl₃ for30 days followed by30 days of artesunate (28mg/kg bw), rivastigmine (1mg/kg bw), and memantine (20mg/kg bw) respectively along with AlCl₃. Passive avoidance test (PAT) was used to test learning and memory on day 60 which was followed by histopathological examination of the hippocampus by Haematoxylin and Eosin staining (H and E). Results: The artesunate, rivastigmine, and memantine showed a protective effect in behavioural observations when compared to control and diseasegroups. These results were consistent with histopathological findings in the brain tissue. Conclusion: Artesunate has shown to have a promising effect in the aluminium chloride induced dementia model of AD comparable to the standard drugs.