Subchronic treatment of donepezil rescues impaired social, hyperactive, and stereotypic behavior in valproic acid-induced animal model of autism.

ABSTRACT: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a group of pervasive developmental disorders with core symptoms such as sociability deficit, language impairment, and repetitive/restricted behaviors. Although worldwide prevalence of ASD has been increased continuously, therapeutic agents to ameliorate the core symptoms especially social deficits, are very limited. In this study, we investigated therapeutic potential of donepezil for ASD using valproic acid-induced autistic animal model (VPA animal model). We found that prenatal exposure of valproic acid (VPA) induced dysregulation of cholinergic neuronal development, most notably the up-regulation of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in the prefrontal cortex of affected rat and mouse offspring. Similarly, differentiating cortical neural progenitor cell in cult

SUBMITTER: Kim JW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4136791 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature