Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is an autistic neurodevelopmental disorder where humans have social communication problems, limited interests, and repetitive behaviors and the prevalence is growing in the world. This paper examined the therapeutic impact of Melissa officinalis alcoholic extract on body weight variation and signs of oxidative stress in an autism model induced by valproic acid (VPA) on male rats. Pregnant Wistar rats were injected with VPA (600mg/kg, subcutaneously) or saline on gestation day 12.5, and the male offspring were injected with Melissa officinalis extract (100mg/kg, orally) or vehicle on postnatal day 35 to 82. The body weights were analyzed after every week and the biomarkers of oxidative stress in the hippocampal were measured biochemically in the four experimental groups (n=5/group). The experimental VPA dosage has a significant effect on the body weight, causing a 71 percent weight gain on average of 246.88±2.50 g at week 7 over baseline of 144.15±3.83 g in controls. Exposure to VPA caused severe oxidative stress in the hippocampal which included reduction of superoxide dismutase activity (41% vs. 44.826±1.320 U/mL) reduced levels of reduced glutathione (17% vs. 15.346±0.366 ug/l) and an increase in malondialdehyde concentration (70% vs. 26.602±2.313 mmol/L). Melissa officinalis extract treatment was significant in improving the conditions of oxidative stress by replacing the activity of superoxide dismutase up to 88% of the levels of control (39.638±1.987 U/mL), returning glutathione concentrations (14.698±0.264 µg/L) to normal level, and lowering the amount of lipid peroxidation by 27% (32.934±3.883 mmol/L), yet exhibited slight effic The above findings indicate that Melissa officinalis extract has strong neuroprotective actions against oxidative stress induced by VPA due to its increased antioxidant enzyme activity and abated lipid peroxidation, which can be used as a complementary medicine in the management of oxidative stress-related pathology of autism spectrum disorders.