Neuroprotective effect of Decalepis hamiltonii aqueous root extract and purified 2-hydroxy-4-methoxy benzaldehyde on 6-OHDA induced neurotoxicity in Caenorhabditis elegans.

In this study, we investigated the possible neuroprotective efficacy of Decalepis hamiltonii tuber extract against 6-Hydroxy dopamine (6-OHDA) induced neurotoxicity and associated effects in Caenorhabditis elegans. The major component of flavour rich extract from D. hamiltonii is 2-hydroxy-4-methoxy benzaldehyde (2H4MB) which is an isomer of vanillin. We have conducted preliminary experiments with different types of extracts and subsequently DHFE (D. hamiltonii Fresh Tuber Extract) and DHPF (D. hamiltonii purified 2H4MB fraction) were used for further studies. Here we attempted to enumerate the neuroprotective efficacy of the above compounds in worms by evaluating behavioural and mitochondrial function, dopamine content and selective degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in BZ555 strains in comparison with control and 6-OHDA treated organisms. The relative expression levels of selected antioxidant genes involved in defence mechanism like SOD-3, GST-2 and GST-4 were evaluated along with those of CAT-2 and DOP-2 at mRNA level. We observed that both DHPF and DHFE exhibited significant levels of neuroprotective property against 6-OHDA induced neurotoxicity, which was evident in mitochondrial/dopaminergic function and antioxidant defence mechanism.