Swapnil Pandey
CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, India
Title: The Lifespan-Extending and neuroprotective effects of Betula utilis ethanolic extract in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans
Biography
Biography: Swapnil Pandey
Abstract
Betula utilis (BU), an important medicinal plant that grows in high altitudes of the Himalayan region, has been utilized traditionally due to its antibacterial, hepatoprotective, and anti-tumor properties. Here, we demonstrated the lifespan promoting and amyloid-β-induced toxicity attenuating activity of B. utilis ethanolic extract (BUE) in a multicellular model organism, i.e., Caenorhabditis elegans. Our results showed that BUE (50µg/ml) extended the mean lifespan of C. elegans by 35.99% and increased its survival under both oxidative and thermal stress conditions. The BUE (50µg/ml) also reduced the levels of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) by 22.47%. The BUE treatment significantly improved the survival of human amyloid-β (Aβ) expressing CL4176 worms in response to proteotoxic stress induced by Aβ protein aggregation. Interestingly, the BUE (50 μg/ml) supplementation was also able to reduce the aggregation of Parkinson’s related protein, α-synuclein in the transgenic strain NL5901 and improved chemotactic behavior in wild-type C. elegans. Moreover, the BUE-mediated lifespan extension was found to be dependent on mev-1, daf-16, hsf-1, and skn-1 but not on sir-2.1 gene. Transgenic reporter gene expression assay showed that BUE (50µg/ml) treatment enhanced the expression of stress protective genes such as sod-3 and gst-4. The present findings suggested that ROS scavenging activity together with multiple longevity mechanisms were involved in BUE-mediated lifespan extension. Thus, BUE might have a potential to increase lifespan and to attenuate neuro-related disease progression.