PARKINSON'S disease

  • Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease which involves a selective degeneration of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons characterized by various motor and non-motor disorders. Neurofit offers various cellular and animal models to evaluate the neuroprotective effect of your compounds.


    MPP+ and 6-OHDA

    6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) is a neurotoxin widely used in lab animals to produce striatal dopamine depletion.
    MPP+ is the active in-vivo metabolite of MPTP causing selective degeneration of nigrostriatal dopaminergic (DA) neurons in PD.
    Similarly to the in-vivo situation, MPP+ induces a selective death of DA in primary cultures of rat mesencephalic neurons. Thus, MPP+ intoxication of mesencephalic neuronal culture appears as a relevant and a cost-effective alternative to the in-vivo experiments for the evaluation of new test compounds with potential beneficial effects on PD.

  • Compound testing


    Compound testing addresses the ability of test compounds to inhibit MPP+ or 6-OHDA - induced cell damage in mesencephalic neuron cultures as assessed by immunostainting of tyrosine hydroxylase neurons.

  • Endpoints


    ☐ Neurotrophin pathways
    ☐ Caspase pathway
    ☐ Inhibition of oxidative stress

  • Dose response toxicity of MPP+ and 6-OHDA on primary cultures of mesencephalic neurons


  • Reduced number of TH positive neurons (■) and cell viability (MTT assay, ●) in mesencephalic neuron culture in response to increasing concentration of MPP+.

  • Reduced number of TH positive neurons (■) and cell viability (MTT assay, ●) in mesencephalic neuron culture in response to increasing concentration of 6-OHDA.
BDNF-GDNF
  • Stimulation of neurotrophin pathways :

  • Prevention of MPP+ -induced dopaminergic neurons death
    by pretreatment with mixture of BDNF-GDNF.
  • Prevention of 6-OHDA-induced dopaminergic neurons death
    by pretreatment with mixture of BDNF-GDNF.

z-VAD-fmk
  • Inhibition of caspase pathway :

  • Prevention of MPP+ -induced dopaminergic neurons death
    by pretreatment with z-VAD-fmk, a caspase inhibitor.
  • Prevention of 6-OHDA–induced dopaminergic neurons death
    by pretreatment with z-VAD-fmk, a caspase inhibitor.

N-acetyl-cystein
  • Inhibition of oxidative stress :

  • Prevention of MPP+ -induced dopaminergic neurons death
    by pretreatment with the antioxidant N-acetyl-cystein.
  • Prevention of 6-OHDA-induced dopaminergic neurons death
    by pretreatment with the antioxidant N-acetyl-cystein.

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