Neuroprotective effect of Yerba mate Neuroprotective effect of Yerba mate (Ilexparaguariensis) on cultured dopaminergic neurons, from in vitro to Drosophila model of Parkinson?s disease.

BERNARDI, ALEJANDRA; TARAVINI, IRENE R.; MURARO, NARA; BALLESTERO, PEDRO; SCHENK, MARCELA; GUERRERO, SANDRA; FERRARIO, MARIANA; GERSHANIK, OSCAR S.; FERRARIO, JUAN E.

Córdoba

Congreso; Congreso SAN 2018; 2018

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disease in the world, affecting 2% of the population over 60 years of age. The origin of PD is unknown, but its physiopathological characteristic is the progressive degeneration of dopamine-releasing neurons (nDA) of the Substantia nigra pars compacta.Recently, a study conducted in Argentina revealed that the consumption of yerba mate (YM), a tea-like infusion, has an inverse association with the risk of developing PD.With the aim of understanding the molecular mechanisms by which YM may provide neuroprotection, we are undertaking experimental approaches both in vitro and in vivo. On the one hand, we studied the possible neuroprotective effects of YM extract on mouse nDA primary cultures, and found that YM has a higher neuroprotective effect over nDA compared to the neuroprotection provided by known agents.We have also tested some of the major compounds of the YM extract. Our in vitro results show that both chlorogenic acid and theobromine have a high neuroprotective effect on nDA cultures, similar to that observed with the YM extract. In addition, we found that both the YM extract and chlorogenic acid, but not theobromine, have a high capacity of inducing neuronal development and branching of neuronal processes.Given these promising in vitro results, we hypothesized that the YM extract would protect nDA in vivo from the degeneration caused by the expression of a-syn, and that this protection would correlate with a better performance in locomotor activity assays. To test this, we have started to study the possible neuroprotective effect of YM in vivo in a Drosophila melanogaster model of PD. We will show preliminary data on the effects of YM in this fly model.