Kakhki Samaneh, Abbaszade-Cheragheali Ali, Tafti Seyyed Pouria, Shirinzadeh Feizabadi Atefeh, Ahmadi-Soleimani S Mohammad, Beheshti Farimah
Department of Clinical Biochemistry, School of Paramedical Sciences, Torbat Heydariyeh University of Medical Sciences, Torbat Heydariyeh, Iran.
Department of Medical-Surgical Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Neurosci Lett. 2025 Jan 18;846:138077. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2024.138077. Epub 2024 Dec 9.
Regarding a wide variety of researches conducted with various therapeutic effect of crocin, the main constituent of saffron, the current study aims to assess the efficacy of crocin to improve learning and memory impairment caused by withdrawal following concurrent usage of ethanol (Eth) and nicotine (Nic) in adolescent male rats.
In order to test memory fucntion, Morris water maze and passive avoidance methods were applied in male Wistar rats undergone adolescent Nic-Eth withdrawal and the effect of crocin treatment was assessed at both behavioral and biochemical levels. The biochemical parameters included the inflammatory cytokines, indicators of oxidative stress and cholinergic metabolism within the hippocampla tissues. Animals were divided into 7 experimental groups as follows: 1) control (saline + saline), 2) nicotine + ethanol, 3-5) nicotine + ethanol + crocin (three doses), 6) nicotine + ethanol + bupropion + naloxone and 7) saline + crocin.
Results indicated that crocin treatment effectively prevented the Nic-Eth withdrawal induced behavioral manifestations of memory impairment when assessed by Morris water maze and passive avoidance tests. In addition, the biochemical alterations (in inflammatory, oxidative and cholinergic parameters) induced by Nic-Eth withdrawal were also ameliorated in rats treated by crocin. Interestingly, the mentioned ameliorative effect of crocin was found to be dose-dependent in most experiments and almost equipotential to that of bupropion and naloxone co-administration, when administered at high doses.
We would like to suggest the crocin treatment as an alternative medication for the management of Nic - Eth withdrawal, however, further studies are required to assess the unknown side effects and high dose tolerability of the drug in human subjects.
鉴于对藏红花主要成分藏红花素的多种治疗效果进行了广泛研究，本研究旨在评估藏红花素对改善青春期雄性大鼠同时使用乙醇（Eth）和尼古丁（Nic）后戒断所致学习和记忆障碍的疗效。
为测试记忆功能，对经历青春期尼古丁 - 乙醇戒断的雄性Wistar大鼠应用莫里斯水迷宫和被动回避方法，并在行为和生化水平评估藏红花素治疗的效果。生化参数包括海马组织内的炎性细胞因子、氧化应激指标和胆碱能代谢指标。动物分为7个实验组，如下：1）对照组（生理盐水 + 生理盐水），2）尼古丁 + 乙醇，3 - 5）尼古丁 + 乙醇 + 藏红花素（三个剂量），6）尼古丁 + 乙醇 + 安非他酮 + 纳洛酮，7）生理盐水 + 藏红花素。
结果表明，通过莫里斯水迷宫和被动回避测试评估时，藏红花素治疗有效预防了尼古丁 - 乙醇戒断诱导的记忆障碍行为表现。此外，藏红花素治疗的大鼠中，尼古丁 - 乙醇戒断诱导的生化改变（炎症、氧化和胆碱能参数）也得到改善。有趣的是，在大多数实验中，藏红花素的上述改善作用呈剂量依赖性，高剂量给药时几乎与安非他酮和纳洛酮联合给药的效果相当。
我们建议将藏红花素治疗作为管理尼古丁 - 乙醇戒断的替代药物，然而，需要进一步研究以评估该药物在人体中的未知副作用和高剂量耐受性。
