The Effect of Sub-chronic Administration of Brewed Coffee on Long-term Potentiation in a Rat Model of Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative illness that causes memory loss and cognitive impairment. For neurodegenerative illnesses, the therapeutic properties and healthy advantages of brewed coffee (BC) intake have been widely explored.

This research aimed to look into the findings of sub-chronic BC administration on long-term potentiation (LTP) as a model of synaptic plasticity that supports memory function in the hippocampus in rat models of AD.

In this study, 32 male Wistar rats were utilized as test subjects. The animals were randomly divided into four groups with eight rats in each group as follows: (1) Sham (animals that received normal saline (NS)), (2) streptozotocin (STZ), (3) BC, and (4) BC-STZ. Animals were treated for three weeks.

The amplitude of excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) in the BC + STZ (164.23 ± 11.33%; n = 8) group significantly increased compared to the STZ group at 0.25 h after HFS (P = 0.0330). Also, it significantly increased in the BC + STZ group at 0.5, 0.75, 1, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, and 2 h (P = 0.4481, P = 0.4609, P = 0.1239, P = 0.0017, P = 0.0413, P = 0.0851, P = 0.1323) after HFS. Moreover, the slope of EPSPs in the BC-STZ group showed an overall improvement compared to the STZ group at 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, and 2 h (P = 0.1511, P = 0.0004, P = 0.0394, P = 0.0038, P = 0.0002, P = 0.0059, P = 0.0245, and P = 0.4126, respectively) after HFS during LTP recording time.

In conclusion, the present study found that BC consumption improved synaptic plasticity and memory in rat models of AD induced by STZ. However, more studies are needed to elucidate BC's neuroprotective mechanisms.