Abstract:

Huntington’s disorder (HD) is a genetic, fatal neurodegenerative disorder that causes abnormal, involuntary jerky movements, postures and defects in cognition, mood and behaviour. Huntington’s disease involves with degeneration of neurons in basal nuclei and so has no cure like other neurodegenerative disorders and the affected person struggles in life for 15-20 years. The basal nuclei are involved in the inhibition of unwanted motor activities and so responsible for fine motor movements. Loss of these neurons will inflict on the quality of life of the person. Neurodegenerative disorders are almost a compulsory evil when a person is ageing. As nerve cell division and regeneration are impossible, we planned to analyze the possibility of protecting the neurons already in action by pretreating them with Withania somnifera, a traditional herbal plant, well known for its neuroprotective role. We selected 4 groups of experimental rat models, treated prior with the crude extract of Withania somnifera and the active principle withanolide A. On analysis, large lesion and dead tissue mass were found in the brain samples without pretreatment. Wherein brain samples with pretreatment, the lesion was minimalized and so was the number of dead cells. By analyzing the actual cell death, we analyzed the protective role of the plant extract and the active principle we employed. As neurodegeneration is a sure process in age and regeneration is a question unanswered, prevention or delaying nerve cell death is a need in the present community health care that was achieved by this study.

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