Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and Huntington's disease are incurable diseases with progressive loss of neural function and require urgent development of effective treatments. Carnosol (CL) reportedly has a pharmacological effect in the prevention of dementia. Nevertheless, the mechanisms of CL's neuroprotection are not entirely clear. The present study aimed to investigate the effects and mechanisms of CL-mediated neuroprotection through Caenorhabditis elegans models. First, CL restored ND protein homeostasis via inhibiting the IIS pathway, regulating MAPK signaling, and simultaneously activating molecular chaperone, thus inhibiting amyloid peptide (Aβ), polyglutamine (polyQ), and α-synuclein (α-syn) deposition and reducing protein disruption-mediated behavioral and cognitive impairments as well as neuronal damages. Furthermore, CL could repair mitochondrial structural damage via improving the mitochondrial membrane protein function and mitochondrial structural homeostasis and improve mitochondrial functional defects via increasing adenosine triphosphate contents, mitochondrial membrane potential, and reactive oxygen species levels, suggesting that CL could improve the ubiquitous mitochondrial defects in NDs. More importantly, we found that CL activated mitochondrial kinetic homeostasis related genes to improve the mitochondrial homeostasis and dysfunction in NDs. Meanwhile, CL up-regulated unc-17, cho-1, and cha-1 genes to alleviate Aβ-mediated cholinergic neurological disorders and activated Notch signaling and the Wnt pathway to diminish polyQ- and α-syn-induced ASH neurons as well as dopaminergic neuron damages. Overall, our study clarified the beneficial anti-ND neuroprotective effects of CL in different aspects and provided new insights into developing CL into products with preventive and therapeutic effects on NDs.
Keywords: Caenorhabditis elegans; carnosol; mitochondrial dysfunctions; neuron damages; proteostasis network.