Effect of hesperidin on the temporal regulation of redox homeostasis in clock mutant (Cryb) ofDrosophila melanogaster

Study on the Sleep-Improvement Effects of Hemerocallis citrina Baroni in Drosophila melanogaster and Targeted Screening to Identify Its Active Components and Mechanism

Hemerocallis citrina Baroni (HC) is an edible plant in Asia, and it has been traditionally used for sleep-improvement. However, the bioactive components and mechanism of HC in sleep-improvement are still unclear. In this study, the sleep-improvement effect of HC hydroalcoholic extract was investigated based on a caffeine-induced insomnia model in Drosophila melanogaster (D. melanogaster), and the ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization quadrupole Orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-ESI-Orbitrap-MS) and network pharmacology strategy were further combined to screen systematically the active constituents and mechanism of HC in sleep-improvement. The results suggested HC effectively regulated the number of nighttime activities and total sleep time of D. melanogaster in a dose-dependent manner and positively regulated the sleep bouts and sleep duration of D. melanogaster. The target screening suggested that quercetin, luteolin, kaempferol, caffeic acid, and nicotinic acid were the main bioactive components of HC in sleep-improvements. Moreover, the core targets (Akt1, Cat, Ple, and Sod) affected by HC were verified by the expression of the mRNA of D. melanogaster. In summary, this study showed that HC could effectively regulate the sleep of D. melanogaster and further clarifies the multi-component and multi-target features of HC in sleep-improvement, which provides a new insight for the research and utilization of HC.

Drosophila as an emerging model organism for studies of food-derived antioxidants

Dietary supplementation with antioxidants provides health benefits by preventing diseases caused by oxidative stress and damage. Consequently, there has been growing interest in the study of antioxidative foods and their active ingredients. Oxidative stress and antioxidative responses are mechanistically conserved from Drosophila to mammals. Therefore, as a well-established model organism with a short life cycle and advantages of genetic manipulation, the fruit fly has been increasingly employed to assess functions of antioxidants in vivo. In this review, the antioxidative defense mechanisms, methods used and assays developed in Drosophila to evaluate antioxidant supplementation, are highlighted. The main manifestations of antioxidation include reduction of reactive species, up-regulation of endogenous antioxidants, inhibition on oxidative damage to biomacromolecules, enhanced resistance against oxidative stress and extension of lifespan, which are related to the activations of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2-antioxidant response element pathway and other adaptive responses. Moreover, the key considerations and future perspectives for the application of Drosophila models in the studies of food-derived antioxidants are discussed.

Hesperidin modulates the rhythmic proteomic profiling in Drosophila melanogaster under oxidative stress

The circadian clock regulates vital aspects of physiology including protein synthesis and oxidative stress response. In this investigation, we performed a proteome-wide scrutiny of rhythmic protein accrual in Drosophila melanogaster on exposure to rotenone, rotenone + hesperidin and hesperidin in D. melanogaster. Total protein from fly samples collected at 6 h intervals over the 24 h period was subjected to two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry. Bioinformatics tool, Protein ANalysis THrough Evolutionary Relationships classification system was used to the determine the biological processes of the proteins of altered abundance. Conspicuous variations in the proteome (151 proteins) of the flies exposed to oxidative stress (by rotenone treatment) and after alleviating oxidative stress (by hesperidin treatment) were observed during the 24 h cycle. Significantly altered levels of abundance of a wide variety of proteins under oxidative stress (rotenone treatment) and under alleviation of oxidative stress (rotenone + hesperidin treatment) and hesperidin (alone) treatment were observed. These proteins are involved in metabolism, muscle activity, heat shock response, redox homeostasis, protein synthesis/folding/degradation, development, ion-channel/cellular transport, and gustatory and olfactory function of the flies. Our data indicates that numerous cellular processes are involved in the temporal regulation of proteins and widespread modulations happen under rotenone treatment and, action of hesperidin could also be seen on these categories of proteins.