Impact of different types of antidiabetic interventions on the development of neurodegenerative changes in brains of diabetic mice and rats

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is neurological disorder characterized by extracellular beta amyloid plaques and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles formed by hyper-phosphorylated Tau protein. Since type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a risk factor of AD development, in the first part of the thesis, a potential relationship between hyper-phosphorylation of Tau protein and central insulin resistance was followed in hippocampi of two models of obesity-induced pre-diabetes, fa/fa rats, and mice with monosodium glutamate (MSG) induced obesity. In both 8-month-old fa/fa rats and 6-month- old MSG mice a decreased phosphorylation of insulin signaling cascade resulted in an increased activation of main Tau kinase glycogen-synthase kinase-3Beta (GSK-3β) and an increased Tau phosphorylation at epitopes Ser396 and Thr231. This phenomenon was less developed in 2-month-old animals. The second part of the thesis was focused on a potential neuroprotective anorexigenic neuropeptide, prolactin-releasing peptide (PrRP), designed at our Institute. Palmitoylation enabled PrRP to cross the blood-brain barrier and employ its central anorexigenic activity. In the third part of the thesis, an effect of 14-day-long SC administration of liraglutide, the most used anti-T2DM drug with central anorexigenic effect, and palmitoylated..