Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive
brain disorder and complex mechanisms are involved in the physiopathology of AD. However, there is data suggesting that
inflammation plays a role in its development and progression. Indeed, some non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as
meloxicam, which act by inhibiting
cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) have been used as
neuroprotective agents in different
neurodegenerative disease models. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of co-nanoencapsulated
curcumin and
meloxicam in
lipid core
nanocapsules (LCN) on
cognitive impairment induced by
amyloid-beta peptide injection in mice. LCN were prepared by the nanoprecipitation method. Male Swiss mice received a single intracerebroventricular injection of
amyloid-beta peptide aggregates (fragment 25-35, 3 nmol/3 μL) or vehicle and were subsequently treated with
curcumin-loaded LCN (10 mg/kg) or
meloxicam-loaded LCN (5 mg/kg) or
meloxicam +
curcumin-co-loaded LCN (5 and 10 mg/kg, respectively). Treatments were given on alternate days for 12 days (i.e., six doses, once every 48 hours, by intragastric gavage). Our data showed that
amyloid-beta peptide infusion caused long-term memory deficits in the inhibitory avoidance and object recognition tests in mice. In the inhibitory avoidance test, both
meloxicam and
curcumin formulations (oil or co-loaded LCN) improved
amyloid-beta-induced memory impairment in mice. However, only
meloxicam and
curcumin-co-loaded LCN attenuated non-aversive memory impairment in the object recognition test. Moreover, the beneficial effects of
meloxicam and
curcumin-co-loaded LCN could be explained by the anti-inflammatory properties of these drugs through cortical COX-2 downregulation. Our study suggests that the neuroprotective potential of
meloxicam and
curcumin co-nanoencapsulation is associated with cortical COX-2 modulation. This study was approved by the Committee on Care and Use of Experimental Animal Resources, the Federal University of Pampa, Brazil (approval No. 02-2015) on April 16, 2015.