Effects of the Polyphenols Delphinidin and Rosmarinic Acid on the Inducible Intra-cellular Aggregation of Alpha-Synuclein in Model Neuron Cells

Abstract

Intracellular aggregation of α-synuclein is a major pathological feature of Parkinson’s disease. In this study, we show that the polyphenols delphinidin and rosmarinic acid suppress intracellular aggregation of α-synuclein in a mouse neuron cell model when added under oxidative stress conditions. To enhance the detection threshold of this preventive effect of the two polyphenols, we generated a new strain of “aggregation prone model cells” that tended to show prominent α-synuclein aggregation even under normal conditions. Using this new highly sensitive cell line, we demonstrate that addition of delphinidin to model cell cultures effectively suppresses the formation of intracellular α-synuclein aggregates. Flow cytometric analysis shows that adding delphinidin decreases the fraction of “dying cells,” cells that were alive but in a damaged state. Our findings suggest the possibility of using polyphenols to prevent and treat the symptoms correlated with the onset of Parkinson’s disease. Additionally, our aggregation-prone cell model may be used in future studies to probe numerous neurodegenerative diseases with high sensitivity.