Yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis) as a neuroprotective agent in Parkinson’s disease models

BALLESTERO P.; HAUCHE H.; ROMANO S.; RIVERO RC.; TARAVINI IRE.; GERSHANIK OS.; BORDONE M.; MURARO N.; FERRARIO JE.

Buenos Aires

Congreso; XXXVII Congreso Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencia.; 2022

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencia

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second neurodegenerative disorder in prevalence. Its origin is unknown, but its pathophysiological characteristic is the progressive degeneration of dopamine-releasing neurons of the Substantia nigra. A clinical study conducted in Argentina revealed that the consumption of yerba mate (YM) has an inverse association with the risk of developing PD (Gatto, 2015), and we found that YM extract induces a strong neuroprotective effect on dopaminergic neurons in vitro (Bernardi, 2019). Given these results, we hypothesized that the YM extract would also protect neurons from the deleterious effects caused by the expression of human alpha synuclein (aSyn) in a widely used Drosophila melanogaster model of PD. To reach this goal, we have set up the administration of YM to these flies and assessed behavioral and molecular parameters. We could observe a decrease in the levels of alpha aSyn measured by the Western blot technique in flies treated with YM. Our experiments using GRASP (GFP Reconstitution Across Synaptic Partners), showed an increased GFP signal (a reporter of synaptic connections) between circadian and dopaminergic neurons in aged flies treated with YM, suggesting more connectivity. To sum up, our experiments show that the administration of YM can decrease the levels of alpha aSyn in this PD fly model and could also maintain synaptic connections; perhaps an indication of healthier neuronal circuits?