AUTHOR=Sivamaruthi Bhagavathi Sundaram , Madhumita Rajkumar , Balamurugan Krishnaswamy , Emmanuvel Rajan Koilmani 

TITLE=Cronobacter sakazakii infection  alters serotonin transporter and  improved fear memory retention in the rats

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Pharmacology

VOLUME=Volume 6 - 2015

YEAR=2015

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/10.3389/fphar.2015.00188

DOI=10.3389/fphar.2015.00188

ISSN=1663-9812

ABSTRACT=<p>It is well established that <italic>Cronobacter sakazakii</italic> infection cause septicemia, necrotizing enterocolitis and meningitis. In the present study, we tested whether the <italic>C. sakazakii</italic> infection alter the learning and memory through serotonin transporter (SERT). To investigate the possible effect on SERT, on postnatal day-15 (PND-15), wistar rat pups were administered with single dose of <italic>C. sakazakii</italic> culture (infected group; 10<sup>7</sup> CFU) or 100 μL of Luria-Bertani broth (medium control) or without any treatment (naïve control). All the individuals were subjected to passive avoidance test on PND-30 to test their fear memory. We show that single dose of <italic>C. sakazakii</italic> infection improved fear memory retention. Subsequently, we show that <italic>C. sakazakii</italic> infection induced the activation of toll-like receptor-3 and heat-shock proteins-90 (Hsp-90). On the other hand, level of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine) and SERT protein was down-regulated. Furthermore, we show that <italic>C. sakazakii</italic> infection up-regulate microRNA-16 (miR-16) expression. The observed results highlight that <italic>C. sakazakii</italic> infections was responsible for improved fear memory retention and may have reduced the level of SERT protein, which is possibly associated with the interaction of up-regulated Hsp-90 with SERT protein or miR-16 with SERT mRNA. Taken together, observed results suggest that <italic>C. sakazakii</italic> infection alter the fear memory possibly through SERT. Hence, this model may be effective to test the <italic>C. sakazakii</italic> infection induced changes in synaptic plasticity through SERT and effect of other pharmacological agents against pathogen induced memory disorder.</p>