Oxidative stress in neurodegenerative diseases using yeast as a model

• Autor(a) principal: Costa, Ana Rita Soares Barbosa da
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.22/11864
• topic: Doença neurodegenerativa; Stress oxidativo; Vitamina C

Nowadays, the ageing of population is conducting to a rise in the number of individuals with age-related illnesses, in which neurodegenerative diseases (ND) are included. Regardless of many variations in etiology and diverse mechanisms of cell injury, most of ND share high levels of oxidative stress, which have been highly referred not only as an underlying factor, but also as a feature. Thus, an actual challenge is to evaluate the role of antioxidants on oxidative stress states and evaluate the magnitude of possible therapeutic effects of these agents.In the present study, the toxic effect of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and the antioxidative function of vitamin C were investigated using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model. The results demonstrated that H2O2 exposure decreased yeast cells viability in a dose-dependent manner and that, at an optimal concentration, vitamin C was able to revert its effects. Also, a High Performance Liquid Chromatography method for determining 3-nytrotirosine, a biomarker of oxidative stress, and octopamine, a neurotransmitter similar to norepinephrine, was performed. However, results shown to be inconclusive. Taken together, the present study demonstrated that H2O2 induced yeast cell death and that these adverse effects were partially rescued by combined exposure with vitamin C. These results improved the understanding of the reversal effect of antioxidant treatment and, therefore, may be helpful on providing insights on a natural antioxidant-based therapy for ND.