Abstract: Objective To analyze the effects of curcumin on learning and memory ability,depressive like behavior,and autophagy proteins,phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase（PI3K）/serine kinase（AKT） pathway proteins in hippocampal tissue in sleep deprived mice,and to explore the mechanism of curcumin antagonizing cognitive function and depressive like behavior induced by sleep deprivation. Methods A sleep deprived mouse model was prepared using the "improved platform water environment" method,and the experiment was arranged into a normal control group,a sleep deprivation group and a curcumin group. The curcumin group were injected intraperitoneally with 10 and 20 mg/kg curcumin,respectively,while the normal control group and sleep deprivation group were injected intraperitoneally with an equal volume of 0.9% sodium chloride. Once daily for 7 days. The water maze experiment was used to measure the cognitive function of mice in each group. The open box experiment and sugar water preference experiment were used to evaluate the depression like behavior of mice in each group. Western blotting was used to analyze the content of autophagic proteins Bcl-2 homologous domain protein antibody（Beclin 1）,microtubule associated protein light chain 3II（LC3II）/microtubule associated protein light chain 3I（LC3I） in hippocampal tissue,as well as the content of phosphorylated phosphoinositol 3-kinase（p-PI3K）/PI3K and phosphorylated serine kinase（p-AKT）/AKT autophagic proteins. Results Compared with the normal control group,the escape latency[（43.79±6.17）s] of sleep deprived mice was prolonged,and the number of crossing platforms[（10.48±1.28）times] was reduced（both P<0.01）,the number of crossing score（53.27±7.99）,the number of crossing score（45.63±6.56）,and the preference rate for sugar water[（32.61±4.97）%] all decreased（all P<0.01）,the levels of Beclin 1（1.58±0.16） and LC3II/LC3I （1.21±0.16） in hippocampal tissue increased（both P<0.01）,while the levels of p-PI3K/PI3K（0.26±0.03） and p-AKT/AKT（0.40±0.05） decreased（both P<0.01）. Compared with the sleep deprivation group,the curcumin group had a shorter escape latency[（31.89±3.81,27.01±3.41）s] and an increased number of crossing platforms[（16.57±1.90,20.26±2.55）times]（all P<0.01）,the number of crossing score（95.39±13.88,114.76±14.94）,rearing score（74.32±7.99, 86.25±9.42） and preference rate for sugar water[（43.09±5.46,51.89±7.38）%] all increased（all P<0.01）,the levels of Beclin 1（1.07±0.11,0.92±0.10） and LC3II/LC3I（0.89±0.11,0.72±0.11） in hippocampal tissue decreased（all P<0.01）,while the levels of p-PI3K/PI3K（0.51±0.06,0.61±0.06） and p-AKT/AKT（0.59±0.06,0.68±0.07） increased（all P<0.01）,and showed a dose-dependent relationship. Conclusion Curcumin can improve cognitive function and alleviate depressive like behavior in sleep deprived mice,which is closely related to its activation of the PI3K/AKT pathway and inhibition of hippocampal autophagy.

Key words: Curcumin, Sleep deprivation, Cognitive function, Depression like behavior, Autophagy, PI3K/AKT pathway