Effect and mechanism of verbascoside on hypoxic memory injury in plateau

Verbascoside is a water‐soluble natural phenylethanoid glycoside and distributes widely in plants. It has been proved with antioxidant, neuroprotective, anti‐inflammatory, antibacterial, and immunomodulatory bioactivities. In this experiment, the effect and mechanism of verbascoside on hypoxic memory injury were studied in a low‐pressure and low‐oxygen chamber. Verbascoside (50, 150, and 300 mg/kg) was intragastrically administered once a day for 7 days. On the fourth day, rats were placed in the chamber to simulate a 7,500 m high‐altitude environment The eight‐arm maze was used to test the memory ability. The levels of MDA, GSH, and T‐SOD in plasma, brain‐NH, and hippocampus were detected. The mRNA expression of mTOR, P70S6K, and 4E‐BP1 in the hippocampus tissue was determined by PCR. The protein expression of P‐mTOR, P‐P70S6K, P‐4E‐BP1, and Cleaved Caspase‐3 in the hippocampus tissue was determined by western blot. The results indicated that administration with verbascoside could obviously reduce the working memory error, reference memory error, total errors, and total time; relieve the neuron damage in CA 1 region of the hippocampus; and decrease the oxidative stress correlation enzyme activity in plasma, brain, and hippocampus. The amelioration of verbascoside on high altitude–induced memory impairment may be associated with the adjustment of oxidative stress and mTOR signaling pathway.