Estudo do efeito comportamental do extrato etanólico de Erythrina velutina em modelo de esquizofrenia-símile induzido por cetamina em camundongos

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a serious and chronic mental disorder that affects about 21 million people around the world, and is characterized by positive, negative and cognitive symptoms. The genus Erythrina is composed of plants of the family Fabaceae, having history of being used by the popular medicine in several scopes, including for anxiety. Based on the popular use and previous studies of effect in the Central Nervous System, it was intended to study the antipsychotic effect of ethanolic extract of E. velutina in a prevention protocol in the animal model of schizophrenia-simile induced by repeated doses of ketamine. Male adult mice (weight: 20-30 g) were divided into five groups and treated with saline or ketamine 25 mg/kg for the model and with olanzapine at 2 mg/kg dose or ethanolic extracts of E. velutina at doses of 200 or 400 mg/kg. The experiment lasted 14 days, and on the last day, 30 minutes after the last drug was administered, the open-field and pre-pulse inhibition (PPI) behavioral tests were performed. The results of the open-field test were favorable to the 400 mg/kg dose of the extract, whose performance was similar to the effect demonstrated by olanzapine, the standard drug for the treatment of schizophrenia. The pre-pulse inhibition test validated the schizophrenia model, but the extracts of E. velutina have inconclusive results. Further studies are required to prove the results and to investigate other variables.