The activation of RARα prevents surgery-induced cognitive impairments via the inhibition of neuroinflammation and the restoration of synaptic proteins in elderly mice.

Post-operative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) is a multi-etiological symptom mainly occurred in elderly people after surgery. The activation of retinoic acid receptor α (RARα), a transcriptional factor, was previously predicated to be negatively associated with the occurrence of POCD. However, the mechanisms underlying anti-POCD effects of RARα were still unclear. In this study, AM580, a selective agonist of RARα, and all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA), a pan agonist of RAR, significantly alleviated cognitive dysfunction and increased the expression of RARα in elderly mice after surgery, which was decreased by RO41-5253, an antagonist of RARα. A bioinformatic study further predicted that the activation of RARα might produce anti-POCD effects via the restoration of synaptic proteins. Both agonists inhibited the expression of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), myeloid differentiation factor 88 (Myd88) and the phosphorylation of nuclear factorkappa-B (NF-κB), leading to the prevention of microglial over-activation and pro-inflammatory cytokines secretion in the hippocampal regions of elderly mice after surgery. Moreover, AM580 and ATRA increased the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and postsynaptic density protein 95 (PSD95), and the phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and cAMP-response element binding protein (CREB). All these results suggested that the activation of RARα prevented surgery-induced cognitive impairments via the inhibition of neuroinflammation by the reduction of the TLR4/Myd88/NF-κB pathway and the restoration of synaptic proteins by the activation of the BDNF/ERK/CREB pathway, providing a further support that RARα could be developed as a therapeutic target for POCD.