(P09-034-25) The Effects of Baru Nut Supplementation on Memory in Male Mice Consuming a Western Diet

Objectives: A western diet (WD), high in fat, salt and sugar can induce inflammation and oxidative stress in the hippocampus leading to cognitive decline. Baru (BA) nuts (Dipteryx alata), native to the Cerrado savanna in Brazil, have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, which are important for neuroprotective effects. The objective of this study was to explore the effects of BA nut supplementation on memory in mice consuming WD.

Methods: Four-week-old male UM-HET3 mice were fed an AIN-93M (low-fat, low-sucrose, low-salt, LFLSS) diet alone or supplemented with 5% (w/w) BA nut flour (LFLSS + BA) for 4 weeks. At week 5, mice on the LFLSS diet continued on the diet (n = 8) or switched to a high-fat, high-sucrose, high-salt (HFHSS) diet (n = 10). Mice consuming LFLSS + BA switched to a HFHSS diet supplemented with 5% (w/w) BA nut flour (HFHSS + BA; n = 10). Novel object (NO) recognition test (NOR) was performed at week 9. On day 1 of NOR, mice explored the open field for 15 min. On day 2, mice explored two identical copies of a familiar object (FO) in the open field for 15 min. One of the FO was replaced with a NO 5 hours later and the mice had 15 min to explore. Data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA or Kruskal-Wallis depending on normality followed by the Tukey’s or Dunn’s posthoc test, respectively. Data are means ± SD.

Results: No significant differences were observed in time spent investigating the NO or the FO among groups. Although not significant, HFHSS showed a decrease in the number of NO investigations (9 ± 5) compared to LFLSS group (12 ± 7, p = 0.4). HFHSS + BA (14 ± 7) was not different from LFLSS (p = 0.9) but also tended to increase number of NO investigations compared to HFHSS (p = 0.2) group. Latency to investigate the NO tended to increase in the HFHSS compared to LFLSS (64 ± 28 vs 37 ± 24-sec, p = 0.2) while HFHSS + BA (31 ± 30 sec, p = 0.08) tended to be significantly lower than HFHSS. The same pattern was observed for latency to investigate FO, albeit not significant.

Conclusions: Our data indicate that BA nut consumption may be a promising dietary intervention to improve curiosity, memory, motivation, and cognitive processing. Further studies of longer duration and with a larger samples size are warranted.

Funding Sources: Lewis College Foundation Award