Senolytic Drug Quercetin Rescues Survival from Blue Light Toxicity in Drosophila Model

Abstract

With the increasing frequency of human exposure to blue light, the harmfulness of blue light has received wider attention. The damaging effect of blue light is complex and long-lasting. In this study, Drosophila melanogaster was used as a model organism to investigate the protective effect of the senolytic drug quercetin on blue light toxicity. As one of the first senolytic drugs discovered, quercetin not only has antioxidant properties, but also has been used to treat various neurological disorders. Our study shows that quercetin can effectively prolong the survival of flies under blue light irradiation, and it significantly increases the egg production of female flies under blue light. In addition, after flies intaking quercetin under blue light, both the spontaneous activity and nutrient metabolism show significant sex-specificity. The experimental results provide a potentially effective intervention method for organisms to defend against blue light toxicity, and reveal a new function of the senolytic drug quercetin from another perspective.