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Early Neurodevelopmental Exposure to Low Lead Levels Induces Fronto-executive Dysfunctions That Are Recovered by Taurine Co-treatment in the Rat Attention Set-Shift Test: Implications for Taurine as a Psychopharmacotherapy Against Neurotoxicants

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Taurine 11

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 1155))

Abstract

Lead (Pb2+) is a developmental neurotoxicant that causes lifelong cognitive dysfunctions. In particular, Pb2+-induced frontoexecutive dysfunctions emerge later in life when the cortex is fully myelinated, thereby permitting the ability to assess the extent to which Pb2+ has developmentally impacted higher order cognitive and behavioral systems. The present study evaluated the effects of developmental Pb2+-exposure (150 ppm lead acetate in the drinking water) in Long Evans Hooded rats through the Attention Set-Shift Test (ASST) between postnatal days (PND) 60–90. Treatment groups were comprised of Control (0 ppm), Perinatal (150 ppm), and Perinatal+Taurine (150 ppm + 0.05% Taurine in the drinking water) rats (N = 36; n = 6 per treatment group for each sex). Frontoexecutive functions were evaluated based on trials-to-criterion (TTC) and errors-to-criterion (ETC) measures for simple and complex discriminations (SD & CD), intradimensional and extradimensional shifts (ID & ED), as well as reversals (Rev) of the CD, I-, and ED stages, respectively. Post-testing, the prelimbic (PrL), infralimbic (IL), orbital ventral frontal (OV), orbital ventro-lateral (OVL), and hippocampal (HP) brain regions were extracted and processed through Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrophotometry (LC/MS) for determining the GABA and Taurine ratios relative to Glutamate, Dopamine, Norepinephrine, Epinephrine, and Serotonin. The ASST data revealed that Perinatal rats are negatively impacted by developmental Pb2+-exposures evidenced by increased TTC and ETC to learn the SD, ID, and ID-Rev with unique sex-based differences in frontoexecutive dysfunctions. Moreover, Perinatal+Taurine co-treated rats exhibited a recovery of the frontoexecutive dysfunctions observed in Perinatal rats to levels equivalent to Control rats across both sexes. The LC/MS data revealed altered brain sub-region specific patterns across the PrL, IL, OV, OVL, and HP in response to developmental Pb2+-exposure that produced an altered neurochemical signaling profile in a sex-dependent manner, which may underlie the observed frontoexecutive dysfunctions, cognitive inflexibility, and associated motivation deficits. When taurine co-treatment was administered concurrently for the duration of developmental Pb2+-exposure, the observed frontoexecutive dysfunctions were significantly reduced in both ASST task performance and neurochemical ratios that were comparable to Control levels for both sexes. Altogether, the data suggest that taurine co-treatment may facilitate neuroprotection, mitigate neurotransmitter excitability balancing, and perhaps ameliorate against neurotoxicant exposures in early development as a potential psychopharmacotherapy.

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Abbreviations

AD/HD:

attention deficit/hyper activity disorder

ASST:

attention set-shift test

ASV:

anodic stripping voltammetry

BLL:

blood lead level

CD:

complex discrimination

CD-ReAcq:

compound discrimination re-acquisition

CD-Rev:

complex discrimination reversal

ED:

extradimensional shift

ED-Rev:

extradimensional shift reversal

EDTA:

ethylenediaminetetracetic acid

ETC:

errors to criterion

HP:

hippocampal area

HPLC:

high performance liquid chromatography

ID:

intradimensional shift

ID-ReAcq:

intra-dimensional shift re-acquisition

ID-Rev:

intradimensional reversal

IL:

infralimbic area

LC/MS:

liquid chromatography/mass spectrophotometry

OV:

orbital ventral frontal area

OVL:

orbital ventral lateral area

Pb2+:

lead

PND:

postnatal day

PrL:

prelimbic area

SD:

simple discrimination

Tau:

taurine

TTC:

trials-to-criterion

WCST:

Wisconsin Card Sorting Task

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by a SUNY Old Westbury Faculty Development grant awarded to L.S.N & Y.J.K. We would like to thank the Co-Directors of the SUNY Old Westbury Collegiate-Science Technology Entry Program (C-STEP) Dr. Patrick Cadet and Mrs. Monique Clark for supporting underrepresented minority (URM) research students. The following URM students were supported by the C-STEP program: E.D.B, N.H., S.R., T.F.D. Jr., J.S., J.R.B, E.K., A.I., I.A. & B.T. Lastly, we would like to thank the Biology, Chemistry & Physics Department, and the SUNY-Neuroscience Research Institute for sharing resources and space allocations to conduct this study.

Conflicts of Interest

LSN discloses a public domain trademark used under common law as the Neuwirth™ ASST apparatus. Otherwise, the authors declare no other conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, SUNY Old Westbury, Old Westbury, NY, USA

    Lorenz S. Neuwirth, Eddy D. Barrerra, Teddy F. Dacius Jr., Asma Iqbal, Isra Ahmed & Sidrah Masood

  2. SUNY Neuroscience Research Institute, SUNY Old Westbury, Old Westbury, NY, USA

    Lorenz S. Neuwirth, Eddy D. Barrerra, Cyrus Jo, Jean-Martin Chrisphonte, Nimra Hameed, Samantha Rubi, Teddy F. Dacius Jr., Jourvonn C. Skeen, Jalen R. Bonitto, Eric Khairi, Asma Iqbal, Isra Ahmed, Sidrah Masood, Bettina Tranquilee & Veni Thiruverkadu

  3. Department of Chemistry & Physics, SUNY Old Westbury, Old Westbury, NY, USA

    Youngjoo Kim

  4. iCARE Institute, SUNY Old Westbury, Old Westbury, NY, USA

    Youngjoo Kim & Jean-Martin Chrisphonte

  5. Department of Biology, SUNY Old Westbury, Old Westbury, NY, USA

    Cyrus Jo, Nimra Hameed, Samantha Rubi, Jourvonn C. Skeen, Jalen R. Bonitto, Eric Khairi, Bettina Tranquilee & Veni Thiruverkadu

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  1. Lorenz S. Neuwirth
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lorenz S. Neuwirth .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, Liaoning, China

    Jianmin Hu

  2. Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, Dalian Medicine University, Dalian, Liaoning, China

    Fengyuan Piao

  3. Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL, USA

    Stephen W. Schaffer

  4. Department of Biology, Center for Developmental Neuroscience, College of Staten Island, Staten Island, NY, USA

    Abdeslem El Idrissi

  5. Department of Biomedical Science, Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA

    Jang-Yen Wu

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Neuwirth, L.S. et al. (2019). Early Neurodevelopmental Exposure to Low Lead Levels Induces Fronto-executive Dysfunctions That Are Recovered by Taurine Co-treatment in the Rat Attention Set-Shift Test: Implications for Taurine as a Psychopharmacotherapy Against Neurotoxicants. In: Hu, J., Piao, F., Schaffer, S., El Idrissi, A., Wu, JY. (eds) Taurine 11. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 1155. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8023-5_70

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