3.3. Fer-1 improves PTE-associated cognitive deficits in mice
Notably, previous reports have shown that over 20% of PTE patients experience cognitive impairments (Mazzini et al., 2003). Therefore, we attempted to explore the effects of Fer-1 on the learning and memory performance in FeCl3-induced PTE in vivo. In this study, NOR and MWM tests are selected as they are widely applied for evaluation of cognitive function (Lueptow, 2017; Mao et al., 2014). The timeline of the NOR test was indicated in Figure 4A. It was demonstrated that control or Fer-1 injection groups exhibited the normal ability to discriminate the new object as the exploration time, which meant the time when the mice explored the familiar or novel object, was greatly different in Con or Fer-1 group (Figure 4B). However, it was difficult for the mice with PTE to discriminate the new object since the exploration time was nearly the same when exploring the familiar and novel objects. Treatment with Fer-1 spent more time to explore the novel object (Figure 4B and Figure 4C), indicating the improvement of cognitive function in PTE mice after Fer-1 treatment. In MWM test, we confirmed there was no difference in the swimming speed of all mice (Figure 4D). Representative swimming traces concerning five days of training trials among different groups was shown in Figure 4E. Fer-1 treatment in PTE mice decreased the tendency in the aspects of escape latency (Figure 4F) and mean path length (Figure 4G). Additionally, the results of probe trial illustrated that mice with PTE exhibited a decrease of passing times (Figure 4H and Figure 4I). However, treatment with Fer-1 significantly increased the index. Collectively, these data suggest that Fer-1 ameliorates cognitive deficits in PTE in vivo.