Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is the most prevalent
neurodegenerative disorder. Despite advances in the understanding of its pathophysiology, none of the available
therapies prevents
disease progression. Excess
glutamate plays an important role in excitotoxicity by activating ionotropic receptors. However, the mechanisms modulating neuronal cell survival/death via
metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) are not completely understood. Recent data indicates that
CDPPB, a positive allosteric modulator of mGluR5, has
neuroprotective effects. Thus, this work aimed to investigate
CDPPB treatment effects on
amyloid-β (Aβ) induced pathological alterations in vitro and in vivo and in a transgenic mouse model of AD (T41 mice). Aβ induced cell death in primary cultures of hippocampal neurons, which was prevented by
CDPPB. Male C57BL/6 mice underwent stereotaxic surgery for unilateral intra-hippocampal Aβ injection, which induced
memory deficits, neurodegeneration, neuronal viability reduction and decrease of doublecortin-positive cells, a marker of immature neurons and neuronal proliferation. Treatment with
CDPPB for 8 days reversed neurodegeneration and doublecortin-positive cells loss and recovered memory function. Fourteen months old T41 mice presented cognitive deficits, neuronal viability reduction,
gliosis and Aβ accumulation. Treatment with
CDPPB for 28 days increased neuronal viability (32.2% increase in NeuN+ cells) and reduced
gliosis in CA1 region (Iba-1+ area by 31.3% and GFAP+ area by 37.5%) in transgenic animals, without inducing hepatotoxicity. However, it did not reverse cognitive deficit. Despite a four-week treatment did not prevent
memory loss in aged transgenic mice,
CDPPB is protective against Aβ stimulus. Therefore, this drug represents a potential candidate for further investigations as AD treatment.