Therapeutic effect of Cerebral on neurodegeneration caused by altered functioning of swiss cheese gene in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

It was found that Cerebral medicine has a therapeutic effect on aging of D. melanogaster individuals with neurodegeneration caused by altered functioning of swiss cheese gene (sws). After Сerebral treatment survival of old mutants swsolfE. was improved. Comparison of brain tissue histological sections of twenty days old males grown on standard nutrient medium and the medium with C. still showed manifestation of the mutant phenotype after application of the drug. However, penetrance of the neurodegenerative phenotype decreased by 10 % and this change correlated with an increase in the viability of aging individuals. We have created a functional knockout of sws gene in glial cells using Gal4-UAS system to test the effect of the drug in the conditions of shortage sws in glial cells. Genotype of such individual was Repo-Gal4>UAS-sws-RNAi. After analysis of these flies, we found specific pathology of glial phenotype, namely: considerable vacuolization in brain tissue in the region of the transition lamina to retina and medulla. In individuals with functional knockout of sws in glia, size of neurodegeneration area decreased by 34.5 % after Cerebral treatment, and 28.4 % in case of using its low molecular weight fraction. No significant differences in the effects of Cerebral and its low molecular weight fraction were found. Our results allow to conclude that the active component of C is its low molecular weight fraction. This drug may be effective in treatment of brain pathologies with a primary damage of glial cells.

Keywords

• neurodegeneration
• Drosophila melanogaster
• swiss cheese
• Gal4-UAS functional inactivation
• Cerebral