Anticholinesterase and Antioxidant Potential of Aqueous Leave Extract of Phyllantus Amarus in Aluminium Chloride-Induced Alzheimer's Disease in Drosophila Melanogaster
Authors: Inneh Churchill , Enogieru Adaze 
Published: May 2023

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that is associated with oxidative stress and loss of cholinergic neurons leading to decrease in acetylcholine levels in the brain. Currently, the most promising approach in the management of AD has been to augment acetylcholine levels in the brain, which gradually becomes deficient during the course of the disease. Consequently, acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors are currently among the best available therapy for the treatment of AD. However, these drugs have severe side effects and as such necessitated the need for the search of natural compounds with antioxidant and anticholinesterase potential. Phyllanthus amarus (P. amarus) is a widely used medicinal plant with some reported antioxidant properties. This study was carried out to investigate the anticholinesterase and antioxidant potential of Phyllantus amarus in aluminium chloride-induced Alzheimer’s disease in drosophila melanogaster. METHODS: Drosophila melanogaster (Harwich strain) of both genders were utilized for this study. To determine the appropriate dose of P. amarus to be utilized for this study, a 21 days survival study (with mortality rate recorded daily) was carried out with varying dose of P. amarus (2.5mg & 5mg). Subsequently, 2.5mg of P. amarus produced the least mortality and was utilized for the ameloriative study. The choice of concentration for aluminium chloride (AlCl3) was based on a previous studiy on Al toxicity in D. melanogaster (Wu et al., 2012). These flies were divided into four groups, with each group containing 50 flies. Group I served as control. Group II were treated with 40mM of AlCl3 via their diet. Group III flies were treated with 2.5mg of P. amarus while Group IV were co-administered with 40 mM AlCl3 and 2.5mg of P. amarus via their diet. The flies were maintained on these treatments at room temperature for seven days. All experiments were carried out in five replicates (n=5). Negative geotaxis was carried out to assess for locomotion performance (climing activity). At the end of the experimental period, the flies were homogenized and the supernatant was used to assay for AchE activity, malonaldehyde concentration (MDA conc), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione S-transferase (GST) activities. RESULTS: We found a significant decrease in survival rate, climbing activity, SOD, CAT, GST activities as well as increase MDA conc. and AChE activities in AlCl3 assaulted flies. In flies co-administered with AlCl3 and P. amarus, P. amarus was able to significantly improve the survival rate, climbing activity, SOD, CAT, GST activities as well as inhibited AChE activities and MDA conc in these flies. CONCLUSION: This study has shown that P. amarus possess both anticholinesterase and antioxidant potential in part due to inhibiting AChE activities and improving endogenous antioxidant enzymes (SOD, CAT, GST) and can be of therapeutic benefits in the management of Alzheimer’s. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2023 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.