To study the effect of certain Ayurvedic Formulations using Alzheimer's and Huntington’s Model Of Drosophila

Abstract

Even though ayurvedic formulations are used in treatments for ailments like dementia, Alzheimer's, etc., their mechanism of action is not fully understood. Presently, we have tried feeding two Ayurvedic formulations, Kalyanaka gritha (KG) and Saraswat gritha (SG), at two different concentrations (0.05 g/100 ml and 0.25 g/100 ml), to fly models of Alzheimer's and Huntington's diseases. These diseases, known as proteopathies, progress with age and lead to the destruction of neurons. In Ayurveda practice, ghee-based medicine (Gritha preparations) is found to be quite effective in the clinical treatment of neurological problems. But such treatment methods are entirely new to modern science and are to be further explored. In this seven-month dissertation, I have tried to understand the effects of these formulations in the larval as well as adult stages of Drosophila melanogaster. The Gal4-UAS system was used to genetically create the desired diseased model fly. Immunostaining of the eye discs of late 3rd instar larvae revealed a lesser accumulation of Aβ plagues in diseased larvae fed KG and SG. In the adult stage, formulation feeding did not improve locomotory or phototaxis behavior. Instead, diseased females fed with higher concentration of formulation showed greater locomotory deficits. However, this could be because the formulations were continuously fed to the flies, even at the adult stage. Lethality studies were also carried out, leading to the conclusion that the lower concentration of the formulation had more pronounced beneficial effects on flies expressing the neurodegenerative transgenes. These results were similar to those we concluded from immunostaining. These preliminary studies suggest that the fly model can be used to study Ayurveda formulations but dosage requires standardization.