Injections of the neuroprotective peptide NAP to newborn mice attenuate head-injury-related dysfunction in adults

Roy Zaltzman, Sara M. Beni, Eliezer Giladi, Albert Pinhasov, Ruth A. Steingart, Jacob Romano, Esther Shohami, Illana Gozes

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

The prophylactic neuroprotective effects of NAP, a femtomolaracting neuroprotective peptide were tested in a mouse model of head trauma. NAP was injected for the first 3 weeks of life and head injury was initiated at 4 months. After trauma, mice were tested for their performance by evaluating damaged motor ability, balance and alertness. Comparison of the performance 1 h and 1 week after injury indicated that NAP treatment resulted in faster and enhanced recovery. In a 5-day Morris water maze test with mice suffering moderate to severe injuries, only the NAP-treated group learned to find the hidden platform in the maze. Furthermore, NAP treatment resulted in decreased mRNA expression of the inflammation marker, Mac-1. Thus, a potentially new prophylactic treatment against neurodegeneration is suggested.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)481-484
Number of pages4
JournalNeuroReport
Volume14
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 3 Mar 2003
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Inflammation
  • Peptides
  • Traumatic brain injury
  • Water maze

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