Activation of autophagy inhibits the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome and alleviates sevoflurane-induced cognitive dysfunction in elderly rats.

"Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participateEthics approval and consent to participate all animal procedures were approved by the Ethical Board of Zunyi Medical University and conducted in accordance with the ethical principles for Experiments on Animals, besides international standards. Ethical Approval Number: KLLY(A)-2020-096. All methods were carried out in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations expressed in the AVMA Guide to Animal Euthanasia 2020 Edition. Consent for publicationNot applicable. Competing interestsThe authors declare no competing interests. Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests."

"Funding This study was supported by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 81960214 and 82160223)."