Abstract:

The hippocampal formation, important for spatial learning and memory function, exhibits high level of plasticity in response to behavioral changes as well as injury. Dysfunction of the hippocampus is one of the hallmark features of neurodegenerative diseases like temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) (Dhanushkodi & Shetty 2008). Glutamate mediated excitotoxicity underlies neurodegeneration in various central nervous system (CNS) diseases like AD and TLE. Brain regions such as hippocampus are more susceptible to excitotoxic damage. During excitotoxicity, the glutamate receptors are hyper-activated resulting in an imbalance between inhibitory and excitatory function, disturbances in calcium homeostasis, mitochondrial function and enhanced production of free radicals that eventually cause the nerve cells to degenerate (Zheng et al 2011). Most of the existing drugs for treating neurodegenerative diseases provides only symptomatic relief and do not mitigate the course of the disease. Hence, there is a pressing need to identify an alternate therapeutic approach to treat neurodegenerative diseases.