Purple Pitanga- PP is a fruit known by some properties that include autophagy induction, oxidative stress resistance and lifespan increase in C. elegans. These properties make PP a candidate for screenings against neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study we evaluated the beneficial effects of PP in two C. elegans transgenic strains for AD- like model. CL2006 [pCL12(
unc-54/human Abeta peptide 1-42 minigene) +
rol-6(
su1006)] and CL2355 [pCL45 (
snb-1::Abeta 1-42::3' UTR(long) +
mtl-2::GFP] transgenic worms were submitted to a chronic treatment (from the L1 stage) with the PP aqueous extract at the concentrations of 100, 250 and 500microg/mL gallic acid equivalents during 48 hours at 20 C. After this period, we verified that the extract did not cause reduction in survival rate, body area and length. In these worms the amyloid beta (Abeta) aggregation is manifested by increased paralysis which impairs locomotion and reduces longevity. Notably, the treatment with PP was able to reduce the paralysis rate in CL2006 (all concentrations) and CL2355 (250 and 500microg/mL) and extend the longevity in this last one (250microg/mL). Once the locomotion and egg-laying are coordinated by the cholinergic system, we exposed worms to the cholinergic agonist levamisole and scored the eggs laid after 1 hour to exposure. We observed that in WT (N2) the exposure to levamisole promoted the increase of egg-laying. In CL2006 and CL2355 the egg-laying is higher in relation to N2 probably because these strains present uncoordinated and reduced locomotion, which may promote increase in the eggs laid in early reproductive cicle. Notably, the treatment with PP was able to restore the egg-laying induced by levamisole (500microg/mL) in CL2006. As previously cited, PP presents antioxidant properties and one transcription factor involved in stress resistance in C. elegans is DAF-16. After 30 minutes, PP exposure induced the nuclear localization of DAF-16 in TJ356 strain (zIs356 [
daf-16p::
daf-16a/b::GFP +
rol-6(
su1006)]) at all concentrations tested. The chronic treatment with PP improved worms locomotion and lifespan. This effect may be conferred by DAF-16 activation which can induce the transcription of important genes that can protect against Abeta toxicity in C. elegans. We will pursue which DAF-16 target genes are upregulated by PP and which extract components are accountable for these effects.