Abstract
Aggregative α-synuclein and incurring oxidative stress are pivotal cascading events, leading to dopaminergic (DAergic) neuronal loss and contributing to clinical manifestations of Parkinson's disease (PD). Our previous study demonstrated that 2-butoxytetrahydrofuran (2-BTHF), isolated from Holothuria scabra (H. scabra), could inhibit amyloid-β aggregation and its ensuing toxicity, which leads to Alzheimer's disease. In the present study, we found that 2-BTHF also attenuated the aggregative and oxidative activities of α-synuclein and lessened its toxicity in a transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) PD model. Such worms treated with 100 μM of 2-BTHF showed substantial reductions in α-synuclein accumulation and DAergic neurodegeneration. Mechanistically, 2-BTHF, at this concentration, significantly decreased aggregation of monomeric α-synuclein and restored locomotion and dopamine-dependent behaviors. Molecular docking exhibited potential bindings of 2-BTHF to HSF-1 and DAF-16 transcription factors. Additionally, 2-BTHF significantly increased the mRNA transcripts of genes encoding proteins involved in proteostasis, including the molecular chaperones hsp-16.2 and hsp-16.49, the ubiquitination/SUMOylation-related ubc-9 gene, and the autophagy-related genes atg-7 and lgg-1. Transcriptomic profiling revealed an additional mechanism of 2-BTHF in α-synuclein-expressing worms, which showed upregulation of PPAR signaling cascades that mediated fatty acid metabolism. 2-BTHF significantly restored lipid deposition, upregulated the fat-7 gene, and enhanced gcs-1-mediated glutathione synthesis in the C. elegans PD model. Taken together, this study demonstrated that 2-BTHF could abrogate aggregative and oxidative properties of α-synuclein and attenuate its toxicity, thus providing a possible therapeutic application for the treatment of α-synuclein-induced PD.