Galantamine improves functional recovery and reduces lesion size in a rat model of spinal cord injury

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a medical condition that currently lacks effective treatment. Galantamine is a reversible, competitive acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, used to treat patients with Alzheimeŕs disease. It has been demonstrated that galantamine increases cerebral neurogenesis and has a neuroprotective effect by binding to nicotinic receptors and has an anti-inflammatory effect due to its allosteric binding to the α7nAChR. In the present study, the effects of galantamine on functional recovery and histological outcome in a rat contusion model of SCI were analyzed. Male Wistar rats were submitted to SCI using a NYU/MASCIS impactor. The animals from the galantamine group were treated with 5 mg/kg galantamine intraperitoneally for 5 days. The Basso, Beattie and Bresnahan scale (BBB) was used to evaluate locomotor activity. The expression of beta3-tubulin, NFM, GFAP, O4, CD68 and CD3 was analyzed by flow cytometry. Rats that received galantamine had significantly higher BBB scores in comparison with the control lesion group. Galantamine treatment increased the percentage of NFM positive cells at 6 weeks post-injury and reduced the size of the lesion. The results indicate that galantamine increased tissue survival and accelerated hind limb motor function recovery. This is the first study that has shown the possibility of therapeutic use of galantamine in a model of acute spinal cord injury.