Puerarin Protect Dopamine Neurons By Inhibiting Oxidative Stress In Rotenone-based Models Of Parkinson’s Disease

Objective It has been acknowledged that oxidative stress is a key mechanism in thepathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease (PD) which results in damage and death ofdopaminergic neurons. Puerarin, a drug extracted from the root of pueraria lobata whichincluded puerariae isoflavones, as a kind of estrogen, has been clinically used for ischemicheart disease as an oxygen free radical scavenger. It was reported that estrogen can increasethe activity of dopaminergic neuron.Whether puerarin has a neuroprotective effect on PDremains unknown. In this study, we aimed to explored the role of puerarin on the damageand death of dopaminergic cells and its possible underlying mechanism.Method Using MTT to test the viability of cells in puerarin treated cell groups. We alsoexaminated the oxidative stress and apoptosis rate by the DCFH-DA and Annexin V-FITCin cells. In rat model, we employed APO to induce rotation. After several weeks, weobserved the average fluorescence intensity of TH, DAT, VMAT2, Ub in midbrain andcorpus striatum.Result For in vitro study, puerarin were divided into five groups (0,10,50,100and150 μM). In puerarin treated groups,the viability of cells elevated while the apoptosis rate andaverage fluorescence intensity of cells decreased compared with rotenone group. In ratmodel, we used behavioral test to assess the behavior change.7days treatment withpurarin after the first rotation test (3days after the surgery) can mitigateapomorphine-induced rotation. Immunohistostainng: Puerarin upregulated the dopaminetransporter (DAT), vesicular monoamine transporter2(VMAT2) and tyrosine hydroxylase(TH) expression,and reduce the protein expression of UB (Ubiquitin).Conclusion Puerarin can alleviate the oxidative stress and apoptosis rate in PD cell model.In the rat model, puerarin also can decrease the loss of dopamine and the formation ofLewy body. We deduced that puerarin may play an important role in the protection ofParkinson disease.