Paraquat-induced Oxidative Stress in Drosophila melanogaster: Effects of Melatonin, Glutathione, Serotonin, Minocycline, Lipoic Acid and Ascorbic Acid

Abstract

The efficacy of melatonin, glutathione, serotonin, minocycline, lipoic acid and ascorbic acid in counteracting the toxicity of paraquat in Drosophila melanogaster was examined. Male Oregon wild strain flies were fed for 5 days with control food or food containing the test substance. They were transferred in groups of five to vials containing only filter paper soaked with 20 mM paraquat in 5% sucrose solution. Survival was determined 24 and 48 h later. All the substances assayed increased the survival of D. melanogaster. At equimolar concentrations (0.43 mM) melatonin was more effective than serotonin, lipoic acid and ascorbic acid. However, lower concentrations of glutathione (0.22 mM) and minocycline (0.05 mM) were as efficient as melatonin. The highest survival rate (38.6%) after 48 h of paraquat treatment was found with 2.15 mM of lipoic acid. No synergistic effect of melatonin with glutathione, serotonin, minocycline, lipoic acid and ascorbic acid was detected.

Caenorhabditis elegans as an alternative in vivo model to determine oral uptake, nanotoxicity, and efficacy of melatonin-loaded lipid-core nanocapsules on paraquat damage

“…Higher levels of these ROS lead to many deleterious effects, including lipid peroxidation in cells and tissue, protein damage, and depletion of NADPH. [40][41][42][43][44] Additionally, the main cause of deaths by PQ poisoning is due to pulmonary fibrosis. Therefore, identifying substances that could protect from oxidative damage caused by PQ is very important.…”

“…45 In this line, some studies demonstrated that melatonin could be a good antioxidant in cases of PQ-poisoning. 38,39,43,44 International Journal of Nanomedicine 2015:10 submit your manuscript | www.dovepress.com…”

Animal Models of Parkinson's Disease: A Gateway to Therapeutics?

“…Modulation of DA, glutamate,adenosine, and other systems has been explored in various animal models of LIDs [129][130][131][132][133][134][135][136][137][138][139][140][141][142][143][144][145].…”

“…For example, by blocking the generation of ROS, minocycline has been found to prolong the survival of a Drosophila model of PD [143]. Another example is lycopene, a potent antioxidant used in cancer prevention, which has been found to protect against oxidative stress through elevating the levels of antioxidants superoxide dismutase and GSH in rotenone-treated rats [144].…”

Human Lymphocytes and Drosophila melanogaster as Model System to Study Oxidative Stress in Parkinson's Disease

“…Amazingly, a variety of approaches have been used to model Parkinson's-like motor dysfunction in Drosophila, including specific genetic alterations (Feany & Bender, 2000;Pendleton et al, 2002b;Sang et al, 2007); pharmacological inhibition of crucial proteins in the dopamine system (Pendleton et al, 2002 a, b) or pharmacological insult (Coulom et al, 2004;Chaudhuri et al, 2007). Indeed, previous studies have demonstrated that paraquat (PQ) induces selective cell death of dopaminergic neurons (Chaudhuri et al, 2007) through interaction with complex I of the mitochondrial respiratory chain (Cocheme & Murphy, 2008) and oxidative stress (Bonilla et al, 2006). Therefore, on the understanding that the causes of PD are mainly oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction, antioxidants, free radical scavengers, monoamine oxidase inhibitors, iron-chelators, and other such drugs are expected to be used.…”