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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Cell. Neurosci.
Sec. Cellular Neuropathology
Volume 18 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fncel.2024.1448005
This article is part of the Research Topic Emerging Mechanisms in Neuroinflammation: Potential Therapeutic Targets for Neurodegenerative Diseases View all 3 articles

Photobiomodulation regulates astrocyte activity and ameliorates scopolamine-induced cognitive behavioral decline

Provisionally accepted
Ji O. Park Ji O. Park 1Namgue Hong Namgue Hong 2Min Young Lee Min Young Lee 3*Jin-Chul Ahn Jin-Chul Ahn 2
  • 1 Department of Medical Laser, Graduate School of Medicine, Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea
  • 2 Medical Laser Research Center, College of Medicine, Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea
  • 3 College of Medicine, Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The pathophysiological mechanism of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has not been clearly identified, and effective treatment methods have not yet been established. Scopolamine causes cholinergic dysfunction in the brain, including the accumulation of amyloid-beta plaques, thereby increasing oxidative stress and neuroinflammation, mimicking AD. Glial cells such as astrocytes have recently been identified as possible biomarkers for AD. Photobiomodulation (PBM) elicits a beneficial biological response in cells and tissues. PBM effects on the central nervous system (CNS) have been widely researched, including effects on astrocyte activity. In the present study, PBM was performed using light at the near-infrared wavelength of 825 nm. The Morris water maze and Y-maze tests were employed to evaluate cognitive function decline in a scopolamine-induced memory dysfunction model and its improvement with PBM. In addition, alteration of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway and immunofluorescence expression levels of active astrocytes were observed in the hippocampus, which is one of the areas affected by AD, to evaluate the mechanism of action of PBM. A reduction in the neuronal cell death in the hippocampus caused by scopolamine was observed with PBM. Moreover, alteration of a MAPK pathway-related marker and changes in glial fibrillary acidic protein (an active astrocyte marker) expression were observed in the PBM-treated group.Finally, significant correlations between functional and histological results were found, validating the results. These findings indicate the possibility of behavioral and histological improvement due to PBM in scopolamine-induced CNS alteration, which mimics AD. This improvement could be related to neuroinflammatory modulation and altered astrocyte activity.

    Keywords: scopolamine, Alzheimer's disease, astrocyte, photobiomodulation, Neuroinflammation

    Received: 12 Jun 2024; Accepted: 28 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Park, Hong, Lee and Ahn. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Min Young Lee, College of Medicine, Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea

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