RETRACTED ARTICLE: The Association of Palmitoylethanolamide with Luteolin Decreases Autophagy in Spinal Cord Injury

Abstract

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating condition of the central nervous system (CNS) often resulting in severe functional impairment and for which there are not yet restorative therapies. In the present study, we performed a widely used model of SCI to determine the neuroprotective propriety of palmitoylethanolamide (PEA) and the antioxidant effect of a flavonoid luteolin (Lut), given as a co-ultramicronized compound co-ultraPEALut. In particular, by western blot analysis and immunofluorescence staining, we investigated whether this compound (at the dose of 1 mg/kg) was able to modulate autophagy. Our results showed that treatment with co-ultraPEALut after SCI reduced the expression of proteins promoter of autophagy such as Beclin-1 and microtubule-associated protein 1A/1B-light chain 3 (MAP-LC3). In contrast, this compound decreased the levels of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), p-Akt, and p-70S6K which are proteins that inhibit autophagy. These data confirmed that the protective role of co-ultraPEALut is associated with inhibition of excessive autophagy and regulation of protein degradation. Therefore, treatment with co-ultraPEALut could be considered as a possible therapeutic approach in an acute traumatic lesion like SCI.

The pharmacology of palmitoylethanolamide and first data on the therapeutic efficacy of some of its new formulations

“…The administration of co‐ultraPEALut (i.p. ), at a lower dose compared with PEA alone, also reduced the severity of trauma induced by compression, improved locomotor activity (Paterniti et al, ) and reduced the expression of protein promoter of autophagy (Siracusa et al, ). Interestingly, co‐ultraPEALut stimulated the expression of neurotrophic factors such as BDNF, glial cell‐derived neurotrophic factor, nerve growth factor and neurotrophin‐3, suggesting that this composite exerts a prominent effect on the management of survival and differentiation of new neurons and spine maturation (Crupi et al, ).…”

Chloroquine Downregulation of Intestinal Autophagy to Alleviate Biological Stress in Early-Weaned Piglets

“…These effects may contribute to the alleviation of the weaning stress response in piglets. The results from previous studies showed CQ promoted injury recovery by preventing the degradation of the autophagic and ubiquitinated protein and inhibiting autophagy-associated inflammation [33,35].…”

B-Cell Depletion with CD20 Antibodies as New Approach in the Treatment of Inflammatory and Immunological Events Associated with Spinal Cord Injury

“…Spinal cord tissues from the perilesional zone were taken 24 h after trauma and processed, as previously described, for hematoxylin and eosin coloration (see Supplementary data 2) [28]. Representative images are shown.…”

“…Immunohistochemical localization of CD19, CD8β, CD4, CD45, CD11β, IL-1β, TNF-α, GFAP, and Foxp3 was carried out as previously described (see Supplementary data 4) [28]. The immunohistochemical pictures were collected by a Zeiss microscope using Axio Vision software.…”

“…Detection of GFAP, TNF-α, IL-1β, Iba-1, CD4, and Foxp3 was carried out as previously described (see Supplementary data 5) [28]. All images were digitalized at a resolution of 8 bits into an array of 2560 × 1920 pixels.…”