Yeast red pigment modifies Amyloid beta growth in Alzheimer disease models in both Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

The effect of yeast red pigment on amyloid-β (Aβ) aggregation and fibril growth was studied in yeasts, fruit flies and in vitro. Yeast strains accumulating red pigment (red strains) contained less amyloid and had better survival rates compared to isogenic strains without red pigment accumulation (white strains). Confocal and fluorescent microscopy was used to visualise fluorescent Aβ-GFP aggregates. Yeast cells containing less red pigment had more Aβ-GFP aggregates despite the lower level of overall GFP fluorescence. Western blot analysis with anti-GFP, anti-Aβ and A11 antibodies also revealed that red cells contained a considerably lower amount of Aβ GFP aggregates as compared to white cells. Similar results were obtained with exogenous red pigment that was able to penetrate yeast cells. In vitro experiments with thioflavine and TEM showed that red pigment effectively decreased Aβ fibril growth. Transgenic flies expressing Aβ were cultivated on medium containing red and white isogenic yeast strains. Flies cultivated on red strains had a significant decrease in Aβ accumulation levels and brain neurodegeneration. They also demonstrated better memory and learning indexes and higher locomotor ability.

• Aβ
• Alzheimer disease
• amyloid
• neurodegeneration
• yeast red pigment

Declaration of interest

This work was supported by a grant from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (No 14-04-01558a) to OVN and carried out using scientific equipment of the Center of Shared Usage “The analytical center of nano- and biotechnologies of SPbSPU” with financial support of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. OVN was also partially supported by the “Molecular and Cell Biology” program of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Supplementary material available online.

Supplemental Figure S1.