Evaluation of phytoconstituent for anti-parkinson activity using zebrafish as a model organism

Abstract

Parkinson disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder, after Alzheimer’s disease. The incidence of PD increases after the age of 50 and rapidly increases after the age of 75. PD is characterized by motor and non-motor features. The most common motor symptoms are tremor, rigidity, akinesia (lack of movement), bradykinesia (slow movements), hypokinesia (reduced movement), that occur mainly due to the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons, involved in the movement coordination and located in the substantia nigra pars compacta. However, in later stages of the disease, it affects other brain regions. Since the available medication of the drugs for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease have seen to have many extrapyrimidal side effects and lesser drugs are present of herbal origin. The purpose of this study is to check and evaluate the efficacy of the phytoconstituent (curcumin) in treatment of parkinson’s disease using zebrafish as a model organism . Curcumin, a yellow pigment present in turmeric has been shown to exhibit numerous activities such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, hepatoprotective, anticarcinogenic, thrombosuppressive and cardiovascular as well have potential to show anti Parkinson activity, is extracted from one of the approved methods and characterized using thin layer chromatography technique. Curcumin related to neuroprotection is its anti-oxidant function that can protects substantia nigra neurons, increases striatal dopamine level , which is necessary for the treatment of parkinson’s disease. Keywords: Parkinson’s disease, Zebrafish, Curcumin.