Abstract： Objective To investigate the mechanism of action of Chidai Jiannao prescription in the prevention and treatment of vascular dementia by regulating the NEK7/NLRP3 inflammasome pathway.Methods The modified bilateral carotid artery liga-tion method was used to establish an animal model of vascular dementia.A total of 100 Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly di-vided into sham-operation group,model group,donepezil group,and high-and middle-dose Chidai Jiannao prescription groups.The Morris water maze test was used to evaluate the memory function of rats;HE staining was used to observe the histomor-phological changes of hippocampal tissue;the TUNEL method was used to measure the apoptosis rate of neurons in the hippo-campus;electron microscopy was used to observe the ultrastructure of hippocampal tissue;real-time PCR and Western blot were used to measure the mRNA and protein expression levels of NEK7,NLRP3,ASC,Caspase-1,and GSDMD in the hippocampus,and ELISA was used to measure the levels of interleukin-1β(IL-1β),interleukin-6(IL-6),interleukin-18(IL-18),and tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α).Results Compared with the model group,the donepezil group and the high-and middle-dose Chidai Jiannao prescription groups had a significant reduction in escape latency(P＜0.05)and significant increases in the number of platform crossings(P＜0.05)and the time ratio of the target quadrant(P＜0.05).Compared with the model group,the done-pezil group and the high-and middle-dose Chidai Jiannao prescription groups had a significantly lower apoptosis rate of neurons in spite of the presence of a certain number of apoptotic cells with nuclear staining.Compared with the model group in terms of ultrastructure,the donepezil group and the high-and middle-dose Chidai Jiannao prescription groups had regular morphology of neurons,uniform and dense space between neurons,and a clear and similar structure of neurons,with few neurons with karyopy-knosis,fragmentation,or necrosis.Compared with the model group,the donepezil group and the high-and middle-dose Chidai Jiannao prescription groups had significant reductions in the mRNA and protein expression levels of NEK7,NLRP3,ASC,Caspase-1,and GSDMD and the levels of IL-1β,IL-6,IL-18,and TNF-α in the hippocampus(P＜0.05).Conclusion Chidai Jiannao prescription can improve the cognitive and memory functions of rats with vascular dementia by inhibiting the levels of the NEK7/NLRP3 inflammasome pathway-related proteins and reducing the expression levels of downstream inflammatory fac-tors after cell apoptosis.