Date of Award

10-31-2022

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

MPhil in Biological and Biomedical Sciences

First Advisor

Dr Fazal Arain

Second Advisor

Dr Hasan Salman Siddiqi

Third Advisor

Dr Saara Ahmad Mudassir

Department

Biological and Biomedical Sciences

Abstract

Epilepsy is characterized by two or more unprovoked seizures. Temporal lobe epilepsy with Hippocampal Sclerosis (TLE-HS) is the most common form of treatment-resistant epilepsy. Apart from spontaneous recurrent seizures, TLE-HS patients may suffer from cognitive and memory impairment. In-vivo studies have shown that herbal extracts, including Zingiber Officinale have a strong anticonvulsant effect. However, their use as a treatment option for TLE- HS is yet to be proven. In our study, Sprague Dawley rats were used as a model for TLE-HS to test the efficacy of Zingiber Officinale, and its associated behavioral changes.
Hypothesis: Zingiber Officinale can reduce the seizure frequency and improve memory loss and depression which can be associated with significant improvement in sclerosis of hippocampus.
Material and Methods: Lithium-Pilocarpine treatment creates a well-established model of TLE-HS. Briefly, Lithium-Pilocarpine is injected intraperitoneally to induce seizures in rats for 1 hour. They are allowed to recover for 2 weeks. During this time hippocampal sclerosis occurs. Rats have spontaneous recurrent seizures at a frequency of 10-15 per week for the rest of their lives, hence making them a model of TLE-HS. In this project, Lithium-Pilocarpine induced model of TLE-HS was treated with Zingiber Officinale extract daily for minimum of 18 days, while recording their Video/EEG for analysis of seizures. Rats were then tested for short[1]term memory and depression using behavioral tests. After that, the rats were sacrificed and transcardially perfused with 4% PFA to extract their brain, the slice of which were Nissl stained to analyze the degree of hippocampal sclerosis.
Results: Our results showed that Zingiber Officinale extract did not produce significant changes in the frequency of seizures, memory, and depression, however, it had a significant effect on the reversal of hippocampal sclerosis in TLE-HS model of rats.
Discussion and Conclusion: Our study shows that we were successfully able to develop the Lithium-Pilocarpine model of TLE-HS. The treatment with Zingiber Officinale for a minimum of 18 days could not show a significant difference in the improvement of seizures, memory, and depression. However, this herbal extract treatment did result in reversal of hippocampal sclerosis. Further, experiments need to be conducted to verify these results and identify the mode of action of Zingiber Officinale extract.

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Last Page

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