Due to the increase in life expectancy worldwide, age-related disorders such as neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) have become more prevalent. Conventional treatments comprise drugs that only attenuate some of the symptoms, but fail to arrest or delay neuronal proteotoxicity that characterizes these diseases. Due to their diverse biological activities, imidazole rings are intensively explored as powerful scaffolds for the development of new bioactive molecules. By using C. elegans, our work aims to explore novel biological roles for these compounds. To this end, we have tested the in vivo anti-proteotoxic effects of imidazolium salts. Since NDs have been largely linked to impaired antioxidant defense mechanisms, we focused on 1-Mesityl-3-(3-sulfonatopropyl) imidazolium (MSI), one of the imidazolium salts that we identified as capable of improving iron-induced oxidative stress resistance in wild-type animals. By combining mutant and gene expression analysis we have determined that this protective effect depends on the activation of the Heat Shock Transcription Factor (HSF-1), whereas it is independent of other canonical cytoprotective molecules such as abnormal Dauer Formation-16 (DAF-16/FOXO) and Skinhead-1 (SKN-1/Nrf2). To delve deeper into the biological roles of MSI, we analyzed the impact of this compound on previously established C. elegans models of protein aggregation. We found that MSI ameliorates β-amyloid-induced paralysis in worms expressing the pathological protein involved in Alzheimer’s Disease. Moreover, this compound also delays age-related locomotion decline in other proteotoxic C. elegans models, suggesting a broad protective effect. Taken together, our results point to MSI as a promising anti-proteotoxic compound and provide proof of concept of the potential of imidazole derivatives in the development of novel therapies to retard age-related proteotoxic diseases.
由于全球预期寿命的增加,神经退行性疾病(NDs)等与年龄相关的疾病变得更加普遍。传统治疗方法包括仅减轻一些症状的药物,但未能阻止或延迟表征这些疾病的神经元蛋白毒性。由于它们具有多种
生物活性,
咪唑环被广泛探索作为新的
生物活性分子开发的强大支架。通过使用C. elegans,我们的工作旨在探索这些化合物的新
生物学作用。为此,我们测试了
咪唑盐的体内抗蛋白毒性效应。由于NDs很大程度上与受损的抗氧化防御机制相关,因此我们专注于1-
甲苯基-3-(3-
磺酸基丙基)
咪唑(MSI),这是我们确定的能够改善野生动物中
铁诱导的氧化应激抵抗力的
咪唑盐之一。通过结合突变体和
基因表达分析,我们已确定这种保护效应取决于热休克转录因子(HSF-1)的激活,而独立于其他经典的细胞保护分子,如异常
DAuer形成-16(
DAF-16 / FOXO)和Skinhead-1(SKN-1 / Nrf2)。为深入了解MSI的
生物学作用,我们分析了该化合物对先前建立的蛋白质聚集C. elegans模型的影响。我们发现,MSI改善了在表达与阿尔茨海默病有关的病理蛋白的蠕虫中β-淀粉样诱导的瘫痪。此外,这种化合物还延缓了其他蛋白质毒性C. elegans模型的年龄相关运动能力下降,表明具有广泛的保护作用。综上所述,我们的结果表明MSI是一种有前途的抗蛋白毒性化合物,并提供了
咪唑衍
生物在开发新的治疗年龄相关蛋白毒性疾病的新疗法的概念证明。