ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Neuropharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1680380
Epigallocatechin-3-gallate conjugated with selenium nanoparticles prevents neurological complications in rats exhibiting schizophrenia-like behaviors
Provisionally accepted
Hadeer M. Gamal El-Deen1
Amina Essawy1
Nema A. Mohammed1
Mohamed Saleh Abdelfattah2Ayah S. Fathalla2
Manal Elkhadragy3
Ahmed Esmat Abdel Moneim2*- 1Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt
- 2Helwan University, Helwan, Egypt
- 3Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The main catechin in green tea is a flavonoid called (-)-epigallocatechin 3-gallate (EGCG) that possesses significant biological and pharmacological properties. In a rat model of schizophrenia, we examined the neuroprotective and antipsychotic properties of EGCG conjugated with selenium nanoparticles (EGCG-SeNPs) against neurological complications induced by social isolation, including significant behavioral and neurochemical dysfunctions that mimic the symptoms of schizophrenia in it. Male rats (21–23 days old) were divided into two groups: the social rearing (SR) group and the social isolation-reared (SIR) group (one rat per cage). The experiment lasted for eight weeks. For the last 2 weeks, rats in both SR and SIR were assigned to saline, EGCG (50 mg/kg), sodium selenite (0.5 mg/kg), EGCG-SeNPs (0.5 mg/kg), and risperidone (2.5 mg/kg) treated groups. At the end of the experiment, all rats were subjected to behavioral tests, and the prefrontal cortex tissues from each group were analyzed for oxidative stress parameters, proinflammatory cytokines, neurochemicals, apoptotic markers, and histopathological changes. EGCG-SeNPs treatment improved the behavior of rats, significantly decreased the levels of malondialdehyde, nitric oxide, and the pro-inflammatory mediators TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, and NF-κB, raised the expression of antioxidant glutathione, superoxide dismutase, glutathione reductase, and catalase, enhanced monoaminergic and cholinergic transmission, and restored the excitatory-inhibitory amino acid imbalance. Additionally, EGCG-SeNPs improved the histopathological changes in the prefrontal cortex, upregulated the expression oe Bcl-2, and downregulated the expression of the anti-apoptotic Bax and caspase-3. These encouraging anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative, anti-apoptotic, and neuromodulatory activities suggest that EGCG-SeNPs might serve as a naturally derived antipsychotic agent.
Keywords: Epigallocatechin gallate and selenium nanoparticles, Schizophrenia, Social Isolation, Oxidative Stress, Neuroinflammation, Neuromodulation, Apoptosis
Received: 05 Aug 2025; Accepted: 23 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gamal El-Deen, Essawy, Mohammed, Abdelfattah, Fathalla, Elkhadragy and Abdel Moneim. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ahmed Esmat Abdel Moneim, aest1977@hotmail.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.