Comparative In Vitro Evaluation Of Natural Versus Synthetic Galantamine For Neuroprotection Against Organophosphate Acute Toxicity

Background We hypothesize that galantamine extracted from Narcissus species may have a protective effect against organophosphate-neurotoxicity, with lower environmental impact. ObjectiveIn vitro testing of the neuroprotective effect of these compounds onneuronal models exposed to an organophosphorus insecticide (diazinon), considering its acute neurotoxicity. Materials and methodsCytotoxicity and protective effect of these compounds in concentrations close to toxic (60µg/ml) and therapeutic (12; 6µg/ml) ones were testedin vitrousing the MTT cell viability assay kit. Statistical analysis was used to test whether the differences between the cell viability of the groups were statistically significant. ResultsThe toxicity values of natural galantamine were higher than those of the synthetic one in concentration of 60µg/ml (p=0.002) and comparable inconcentrations of 6 and 12µg/ml(p=0.06 and p=0.5).Highlighting of the neuroprotective effect by assessing cell viability in the case of exposure of the rat hippocampal neurons cell line to the organophosphorus compound in concentrations of 240 µg/mL, with pretreatment with the studied compounds, emphasized comparable values. In case of exposure to lower concentrations of diazinonthe neuroprotective effect of natural galantamine at a concentration of 12μg/ml is higher than that of synthetic galantamine (p=0.03),andlower than that of the synthetic compound in the case of concentrations of 6 and 60μg/ml (p=0.009 and respectively p=0.002,). Conclusions The protective effect offered by galantamine obtained from the N. poeticusextract was superior to the synthetic compound under experimental conditions at a concentration of 12μg/ml,with lower environmental impact.