Objective: 

Membrane lipid dysfunction plays an important role in the etiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and a deficiency in Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) has been observed in AD human patients. This report aims to study the effects of a modified fatty acid 2OH-DHA on the working memory of 5XFAD a transgenic mouse model of AD.

Methods: 

Wild mice B6JSL have been used as controls and two additional groups of 5XFAD mice have been studied (n=9 for each group). Three months old B6JSL and 5XFAD animals received during 12 week (5 days/week) a 5% intraesophagic ethanol solution (15 ml/kg). The 5XFAD experimental group received 2OH-DHA (15mg/kg dissolved in 5% ethanol). Then, all animals were fasted until reaching 80% of the ad libitum body weight and were submitted to 10 pre-training sessions in an eight arm radial maze. Then, the working memory was tested in 20 sessions with 4 baited and 4 non baited arms. Each session finished when the animals either succeeded in finding the baited arms or failed after 20 min of test. The total time for performance and the number of errors (failure, entrance in an unbaited arm or re-entrance in a visited arm) were computed as indexes of performance.

Results: 

When compared with untreated 5XFAD controls, the treatment with 2OH-DHA caused a 15% reduction in time for performance. The number of errors also suffered a 25% reduction, reaching levels without difference with those observed in B6SJL wild controls.

Conclusions: 

The lipidic therapy improves the working memory in a mice model of AD and could be useful for the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease.