Protective effect of rutin on cognitive impairment caused by phenytoin.

To study the effect of the co-administration of phenytoin (PHT) and rutin in comparison with PHT and piracetam (PIM) on seizure control, cognitive, and motor functions in mice.Increasing current electroshock seizure (ICES) test was used to evaluate the effect of the co-administration of PHT and PIM on convulsions. Cognitive functions in mice were assessed by a spontaneous alternation in behavior on a plus maze while motor functions were screened using rolling roller apparatus and by counting the number of arms entries on a plus maze. Brain acetyl-cholinesterase (AChE) activity was also estimated.The expression of data was done as mean ± standard error of the mean. The normally distributed data were subjected to one-way ANOVA followed by Dunnett's test. P < 0.05 was considered significant.The study showed that rutin when co-administered with PHT, significantly reversed PHT-induced reduction in spontaneous alternation without altering the efficacy of PHT against ICES, in both acute and chronic studies. Further, it also reversed PHT-induced increase in AChE activity.Rutin alleviated the PHT-induced cognitive impairment without compromising its antiepileptic efficacy.