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Oral Supplementation with Maca Improves Social Recognition Deficits in the Valproic Acid Animal Model of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a congenital, lifelong neurodevelopmental disorder whose main symptom is impaired social communication and interaction. However, no drug can treat social deficits in patients with ASD, and treatments to alleviate social behavioral deficits are sorely needed. Here, w...

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Autores principales: Fu, Pinyue, Luo, Shuxin, Liu, Zhongyu, Furuhara, Kazumi, Tsuji, Takahiro, Higashida, Haruhiro, Yokoyama, Shigeru, Zhong, Jing, Tsuji, Chiharu
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9954495/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36831858
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13020316
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author Fu, Pinyue
Luo, Shuxin
Liu, Zhongyu
Furuhara, Kazumi
Tsuji, Takahiro
Higashida, Haruhiro
Yokoyama, Shigeru
Zhong, Jing
Tsuji, Chiharu
author_facet Fu, Pinyue
Luo, Shuxin
Liu, Zhongyu
Furuhara, Kazumi
Tsuji, Takahiro
Higashida, Haruhiro
Yokoyama, Shigeru
Zhong, Jing
Tsuji, Chiharu
author_sort Fu, Pinyue
collection PubMed
description Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a congenital, lifelong neurodevelopmental disorder whose main symptom is impaired social communication and interaction. However, no drug can treat social deficits in patients with ASD, and treatments to alleviate social behavioral deficits are sorely needed. Here, we examined the effect of oral supplementation of maca (Lepidium meyenii) on social deficits of in utero-exposed valproic acid (VPA) mice, widely used as an ASD model. Although maca is widely consumed as a fertility enhancer and aphrodisiac, it possesses multiple beneficial activities. Additionally, it benefits learning and memory in experimental animal models. Therefore, the effect of maca supplementation on the social behavioral deficit of VPA mice was assessed using a social interaction test, a three-stage open field test, and a five-trial social memory test. The oral supplementation of maca attenuated social interaction behavior deficit and social memory impairment. The number of c-Fos-positive cells and the percentage of c-Fos-positive oxytocin neurons increased in supraoptic and paraventricular neurons of maca-treated VPA mice. These results reveal for the first time that maca is beneficial to social memory and that it restores social recognition impairments by augmenting the oxytocinergic neuronal pathways, which play an essential role in diverse social behaviors.
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spelling pubmed-99544952023-02-25 Oral Supplementation with Maca Improves Social Recognition Deficits in the Valproic Acid Animal Model of Autism Spectrum Disorder Fu, Pinyue Luo, Shuxin Liu, Zhongyu Furuhara, Kazumi Tsuji, Takahiro Higashida, Haruhiro Yokoyama, Shigeru Zhong, Jing Tsuji, Chiharu Brain Sci Article Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a congenital, lifelong neurodevelopmental disorder whose main symptom is impaired social communication and interaction. However, no drug can treat social deficits in patients with ASD, and treatments to alleviate social behavioral deficits are sorely needed. Here, we examined the effect of oral supplementation of maca (Lepidium meyenii) on social deficits of in utero-exposed valproic acid (VPA) mice, widely used as an ASD model. Although maca is widely consumed as a fertility enhancer and aphrodisiac, it possesses multiple beneficial activities. Additionally, it benefits learning and memory in experimental animal models. Therefore, the effect of maca supplementation on the social behavioral deficit of VPA mice was assessed using a social interaction test, a three-stage open field test, and a five-trial social memory test. The oral supplementation of maca attenuated social interaction behavior deficit and social memory impairment. The number of c-Fos-positive cells and the percentage of c-Fos-positive oxytocin neurons increased in supraoptic and paraventricular neurons of maca-treated VPA mice. These results reveal for the first time that maca is beneficial to social memory and that it restores social recognition impairments by augmenting the oxytocinergic neuronal pathways, which play an essential role in diverse social behaviors. MDPI 2023-02-13 /pmc/articles/PMC9954495/ /pubmed/36831858 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13020316 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Fu, Pinyue
Luo, Shuxin
Liu, Zhongyu
Furuhara, Kazumi
Tsuji, Takahiro
Higashida, Haruhiro
Yokoyama, Shigeru
Zhong, Jing
Tsuji, Chiharu
Oral Supplementation with Maca Improves Social Recognition Deficits in the Valproic Acid Animal Model of Autism Spectrum Disorder
title Oral Supplementation with Maca Improves Social Recognition Deficits in the Valproic Acid Animal Model of Autism Spectrum Disorder
title_full Oral Supplementation with Maca Improves Social Recognition Deficits in the Valproic Acid Animal Model of Autism Spectrum Disorder
title_fullStr Oral Supplementation with Maca Improves Social Recognition Deficits in the Valproic Acid Animal Model of Autism Spectrum Disorder
title_full_unstemmed Oral Supplementation with Maca Improves Social Recognition Deficits in the Valproic Acid Animal Model of Autism Spectrum Disorder
title_short Oral Supplementation with Maca Improves Social Recognition Deficits in the Valproic Acid Animal Model of Autism Spectrum Disorder
title_sort oral supplementation with maca improves social recognition deficits in the valproic acid animal model of autism spectrum disorder
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9954495/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36831858
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13020316
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