Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine whether subcutaneous injection of bee venom was effective in improving cognitive impairment by scopolamine.
Methods: Forty two mice were divided into 7 groups. Cognitive impairment mice model was induced by scopolamine intraperitoneal (I.P.) injection, and donepezi1 subcutaneous (S.C.) injection was used for the positive control. Bee venom (BV), melittin and phospholipase A2 were subcutaneously injected as treatments. Afterwards, behavioral experiments were performed with the Morris water maze test and western blotting analysis and biochemical assay were conducted.
Results: Morris water maze test was performed, bee venom group (BVG), melittin high dosage group (Mel-H) and phospholipase A2 group (PLA2G) were significantly effective in latency time to target and target crossing time. But melittin low dosage group (Mel-L) was not significantly effective in target crossing time. BVG, Mel-H and PLA2G were all effective in western blotting analysis (BDNF, p-CREB, iNOS, mAch R1) and biochemical assays (Ach, AchE). But Mel-L was not significantly effective in p-CREB but the other parameters.
Conclusions: Subcutaneous injection of bee venom and its components (melittin, PLA2) was effective for scopolamine-induced cognitive impairment. However, melittin was dose-dependent.