Bee Bread Shows Protective Effects in a Streptozotocin-Induced Alzheimer's Disease Rat Model

Abstract Alzheimer's disease (AD) is currently a global concern, and treating its current symptoms and slowing its progression is an important goal. To this end, identifying biochemical mechanisms that have the potential to prevent and improve the pathology of the disease is a priority. The response of the central nervous system to pathological insults may be neuroinflammation. Kynurenine (KYN) pathway metabolites, which are closely related to neuroinflammation, may have the potential to affect many neural processes such as synaptic plasticity, neurotransmission, antioxidant mechanisms, and neurogenesis. In addition, it has been recently shown that there is a strong correlation between sensory system deterioration and AD progression and that neuropathological changes in sensory regions can be detected before changes in memory-related regions. For this purpose, our study aimed to investigate the effects of changes in the Kynurenine (KYN) pathway on cognitive functions and auditory sensory system functions in an experimental AD model and the effects of bee bread (BB), known to have anti-inflammatory properties, on these parameters. It was shown that BB has the potential to improve memory by exerting a healing effect on neuroinflammation, apoptosis, and the KYN pathway, and also has a therapeutic effect on auditory sensory system functions, reducing sensory system integrity disorders. These results highlight the ability of BB to prevent neurotoxic effects associated with sAD. It may be a potential protector as a food supplement for AD neuropathological health, and further studies are needed for this purpose. Graphical Abstract