Effect of cabergoline alginate nanocomposite on the transgenic Drosophila melanogaster model of Parkinson’s disease

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra of the midbrain. Dopamine agonists help the patients with PD by reversing the dopamine depletion and related motor deficits. In the present work, cabergoline, a potent ergot dopamine agonist, was given in the form of cabergoline alginate nanocomposite (CANC) to the PD model flies to study its effects on climbing ability, activity pattern, life span, lipid peroxidation, glutathione (GSH) content, glutathione-S-transferase (GST) activity, dopamine content, protein carbonyl content, mean gray-scale values, and caspase-3 and caspase-9 activities. Cabergoline alginate nanocomposite was synthesized by adding the cabergoline solution in the warm aqueous solution of sodium alginate; The synthesized CANC was characterized using fourier transform (FTIR) infrared spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and UV–Visible spectroscopic techniques. The synthesized CANC having the final doses of 1, 2, and 3 μM was supplemented with diet and the flies were allowed to feed on it for 24 days. Cabergoline alginate nanocomposite significantly increases climbing ability, reduces lipid peroxidation, GST activity, protein carbonyl content, caspase 3/9 activity, mean gray-scale values, and increases the GSH as well as dopamine content in a dose-dependent manner. The results of this study suggest that CANC is potent in delaying and reducing the symptoms of PD.

Keywords:

• Cabergoline
• nanocomposite
• oxidative stress
• Parkinson’s disease
• α-synuclein

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi, India, for the sanction of the research project (No. 37 (1594)/13/EMR-II) to YHS and MANF to SK. They are also thankful to the Chairman, Department of Zoology, AMU, Aligarh, for providing laboratory facilities. The flies were purchased from Bloomington Drosophila Stock Centre, Indiana University, USA.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.