Grape-Seed polyphenolic extract improves the eye phenotype in a drosophila model of Tauopathy

Abstract

Drosophila models of tauopathies have been developed by transgenically overexpressing the disease-associated forms of tau. In this paper we report for the first time that a recently developed Grape-Seed Polyphenolic Extract (GSPE) improves the eye phenotype of a Drosophila eye model of R406W tau. GSPE-mediated improvements in this distinct in vivo neurodegeneration model for protein misfolding/aggregation suggest that GSPE may have therapeutic value in disorders involving aberrant protein aggregation. © 2010 Cathie M. Pfleger et al.