Parkinson's disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease causing tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia, and gait impairment. Oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction play important roles in the development of Parkinson disease. Salidroside (Sal), a phenylpropanoid glycoside isolated from Rhodiola rosea L., has potent antioxidant properties. Previous work from our group suggests that Sal might protect dopaminergic neurons through inhibition of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and nitric oxide (NO) generation. In the present study, we investigated the protective effects of Sal in MPTP/MPP(+) models of Parkinson's disease in an attempt to elucidate the underlying mechanism of protection. We found that Sal pretreatment protected dopaminergic neurons against MPTP/MPP(+)-induced toxicity in a dose-dependent manner by: (1) reducing the production of ROS-NO, (2) regulating the ratio of Bcl-2/Bax, (3) decreasing cytochrome-c and Smac release, and inhibiting caspase-3, caspas-6, and caspas-9 activation, and (4) reducing α-synuclein aggregation. The present study supports the hypothesis that Sal may act as an effective neuroprotective agent through modulation of the ROS-NO-related mitochondrial pathway in vitro and in vivo.
The pathogenic mechanism of Parkinson’s disease (PD) remains to be elucidated; however, mitochondrial dysfunction at the level of complex I and oxidative stress is suggestively involved in the development of PD. In our previous work, salidroside (Sal), an active component extracted from the medicinal plant Rhodiola rosea L., might protect dopaminergic (DA) neurons through modulating ROS–NO-related pathway. However, the mechanism of Sal-induced neuroprotective effects against PD remains poorly understood. Therefore, we further investigated whether Sal plays neuroprotective effects by activating complex I via DJ-1/Nrf2-mediated antioxidant pathway. The results showed that Sal remarkably attenuated MPP+/MPTP-induced decline in cell viability, accompanied by decreases in reactive oxygen species (ROS), malondialdehyde (MDA), and 8-hydroxy-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) contents and increases in the superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), as well as glutathione (GSH) levels. Furthermore, Sal greatly improved the behavioral performance and prevented the severe reduction of TH-positive neuron numbers in the substantia nigra (SN). Moreover, in comparison with the MPP+/MPTP group, Sal increased the nuclear translocation of DJ-1 and Nrf2 and the mitochondrial translocation of DJ-1, accompanied by activating complex I. Furthermore, silencing of DJ-1/Nrf2 inhibited the increase of complex I activity and cell viability elicited by Sal. Together, these results support the neuroprotective effect of Sal against MPP+/MPTP-induced DA neurons damage.
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