Cells (Sep 2021)

Alpha-Linolenic Acid Impedes Cadmium-Induced Oxidative Stress, Neuroinflammation, and Neurodegeneration in Mouse Brain

  • Sayed-Ibrar Alam,
  • Min-Woo Kim,
  • Fawad Ali Shah,
  • Kamran Saeed,
  • Rahat Ullah,
  • Myeong-Ok Kim

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/cells10092274
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 9
p. 2274

Abstract

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Alpha-Linolenic acid (ALA), an omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid, is extracted from plant sources and has been shown to be one of the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant agents. Herein, we revealed the molecular mechanism underlying the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant potential of (ALA), against cadmium in the adult mouse brain. We evaluated the neuroprotective effect of ALA (60 mg/kg per oral for 6 weeks) against CdCl2 (5 mg/kg)-induced oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and neuronal apoptosis. According to our findings, ALA markedly reduced ROS production and nitric oxide synthase 2 (NOS2) and enhanced the expression of nuclear factor-2 erythroid-2 (Nrf-2) and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) in mice treated with CdCl2. Most importantly, the molecular docking study revealed that ALA allosterically decreases the overexpression of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) activity and inhibited the detrimental effect against CdCl2. Moreover, ALA suppressed CdCl2-induced glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), nuclear factor-kappa b (NF-κB), and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) in the mouse brain. Further, we also checked the pro- and anti-apoptotic proteins markers such as Bax, Bcl-2, and caspase-3, which were regulated in the cortex of ALA co-treated mouse brain. Overall, our study suggests that oral administration of ALA can impede oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and increase neuronal apoptosis in the cortex of Cd-injected mouse brain.

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