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Nutraceutical Screening in a Zebrafish Model of Muscular Dystrophy: Gingerol as a Possible Food Aid

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), caused by mutations in the dystrophin gene, is an inherited neuromuscular disorder that causes loss of muscle mass and motor skills. In the era of genomic medicine, there is still no known cure for DMD. In clinical practice, there is a growing awareness of the poss...

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Autores principales: Licitra, Rosario, Marchese, Maria, Brogi, Letizia, Fronte, Baldassare, Pitto, Letizia, Santorelli, Filippo M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8003371/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33808773
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu13030998
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author Licitra, Rosario
Marchese, Maria
Brogi, Letizia
Fronte, Baldassare
Pitto, Letizia
Santorelli, Filippo M.
author_facet Licitra, Rosario
Marchese, Maria
Brogi, Letizia
Fronte, Baldassare
Pitto, Letizia
Santorelli, Filippo M.
author_sort Licitra, Rosario
collection PubMed
description Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), caused by mutations in the dystrophin gene, is an inherited neuromuscular disorder that causes loss of muscle mass and motor skills. In the era of genomic medicine, there is still no known cure for DMD. In clinical practice, there is a growing awareness of the possible importance of nutrition in neuromuscular diseases. This is mostly the result of patients’ or caregivers’ empirical reports of how active substances derived from food have led to improved muscle strength and, thus, better quality of life. In this report, we investigate several nutraceutical principles in the sapje strain of zebrafish, a validated model of DMD, in order to identify possible natural products that, if supplemented in the diet, might improve the quality of life of DMD patients. Gingerol, a constituent of fresh ginger, statistically increased the locomotion of mutant larvae and upregulated the expression of heme oxygenase 1, a target gene for therapy aimed at improving dystrophic symptoms. Although three other compounds showed a partial positive effect on locomotor and muscle structure phenotypes, our nutraceutical screening study lent preliminary support to the efficacy and safety only of gingerol. Gingerol could easily be proposed as a dietary supplement in DMD.
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spelling pubmed-80033712021-03-28 Nutraceutical Screening in a Zebrafish Model of Muscular Dystrophy: Gingerol as a Possible Food Aid Licitra, Rosario Marchese, Maria Brogi, Letizia Fronte, Baldassare Pitto, Letizia Santorelli, Filippo M. Nutrients Article Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), caused by mutations in the dystrophin gene, is an inherited neuromuscular disorder that causes loss of muscle mass and motor skills. In the era of genomic medicine, there is still no known cure for DMD. In clinical practice, there is a growing awareness of the possible importance of nutrition in neuromuscular diseases. This is mostly the result of patients’ or caregivers’ empirical reports of how active substances derived from food have led to improved muscle strength and, thus, better quality of life. In this report, we investigate several nutraceutical principles in the sapje strain of zebrafish, a validated model of DMD, in order to identify possible natural products that, if supplemented in the diet, might improve the quality of life of DMD patients. Gingerol, a constituent of fresh ginger, statistically increased the locomotion of mutant larvae and upregulated the expression of heme oxygenase 1, a target gene for therapy aimed at improving dystrophic symptoms. Although three other compounds showed a partial positive effect on locomotor and muscle structure phenotypes, our nutraceutical screening study lent preliminary support to the efficacy and safety only of gingerol. Gingerol could easily be proposed as a dietary supplement in DMD. MDPI 2021-03-19 /pmc/articles/PMC8003371/ /pubmed/33808773 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu13030998 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ).
spellingShingle Article
Licitra, Rosario
Marchese, Maria
Brogi, Letizia
Fronte, Baldassare
Pitto, Letizia
Santorelli, Filippo M.
Nutraceutical Screening in a Zebrafish Model of Muscular Dystrophy: Gingerol as a Possible Food Aid
title Nutraceutical Screening in a Zebrafish Model of Muscular Dystrophy: Gingerol as a Possible Food Aid
title_full Nutraceutical Screening in a Zebrafish Model of Muscular Dystrophy: Gingerol as a Possible Food Aid
title_fullStr Nutraceutical Screening in a Zebrafish Model of Muscular Dystrophy: Gingerol as a Possible Food Aid
title_full_unstemmed Nutraceutical Screening in a Zebrafish Model of Muscular Dystrophy: Gingerol as a Possible Food Aid
title_short Nutraceutical Screening in a Zebrafish Model of Muscular Dystrophy: Gingerol as a Possible Food Aid
title_sort nutraceutical screening in a zebrafish model of muscular dystrophy: gingerol as a possible food aid
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8003371/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33808773
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu13030998
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