Standardised extract of Bacopa monniera (CDRI-08) improves contextual fear memory by differentially regulating the activity of histone acetylation and protein phosphatases (PP1α, PP2A) in hippocampus.

Contextual fear conditioning is a paradigm for investigating cellular mechanisms involved in hippocampus-dependent memory. Earlier, we showed that standardised extract of Bacopa monniera (CDRI-08) improves hippocampus-dependent learning in postnatal rats by elevating the level of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT), activate 5-HT3A receptors, and cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) response element binding (CREB) protein. In this study, we have further examined the molecular mechanism of CDRI-08 in hippocampus-dependent memory and compared to the histone deacetylase (HDACs) inhibitor sodium butyrate (NaB). To assess the hippocampus-dependent memory, wistar rat pups were subjected to contextual fear conditioning (CFC) following daily (postnatal days 15-29) administration of vehicle solution (0.5 % gum acacia + 0.9 % saline)/CDRI-08 (80 mg/kg, p.o.)/NaB (1.2 g/kg in PBS, i.p.). CDRI-08/NaB treated group showed enhanced freezing behavior compared to control group when re-exposed to the same context. Administration of CDRI-08/NaB resulted in activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase ERK/CREB signaling cascade and up-regulation of p300, Ac-H3 and Ac-H4 levels, and down-regulation of HDACs (1, 2) and protein phosphatases (PP1α, PP2A) in hippocampus following CFC. This would subsequently result in an increased brain-derived neurotrophic factor (Bdnf) (exon IV) mRNA in hippocampus. Altogether, our results indicate that CDRI-08 enhances hippocampus-dependent contextual memory by differentially regulating histone acetylation and protein phosphatases in hippocampus.