Resveratrol attenuates oxidative stress and improves behaviour in 1 -methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) challenged mice

BACKGROUND: Parkinson's disease (PD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder, characterized by loss of dopaminergic neurons in substantia nigra and depletion of dopamine in striatum due to mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, excitotoxicity, apoptosis, inflammation and proteasome failure. PURPOSE: The present study deals with the neuroprotective effect of resveratrol, a wine polyphenol (50 mg/kg body weight) against MPTP (30mg/kg body weight as i.p. administration) induced mice model of idiopathic Parkinson's disease. METHODS: A combination of behaviour tasks and biochemical parameters were tested using standard molecular tools. RESULTS: Pretreatment of resveratrol significantly reversed toxic effects of MPTP by increasing the levels of dopamine, its metabolites, GSH and activities of GPx and reducing levels of TBARS, catalase and SOD activities along with enhanced behavior performance. CONCLUSION: The multifactorial etiology of these diseases suggests that drugs with multiple targets such as resveratrol could have therapeutic potential for these pathologies.