The protective effect of decoction of Rehmanniae via PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway in MPP-induced Parkinson's disease model cells.

This research aims to explore the function of DOR in 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP)-induced Parkinson's disease model cell SH-SY5Y. SH-SY5Y cells were exposed with various doses of MPP + or DOR. Cell counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay and flow cytometry (FCM) were used to detect the cell viability, apoptosis and reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels in MPP Parkinson's disease model cells SH-SY5Y. The oxidative stress markers were measured by Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), Western blot and quantitative real-time reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) assays. To further determine the protective effect of DOR on acute injury PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway, cells were treated with LY294002 (LY), a PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway inhibitor, with MMP + or DOR or not. MPP at various doses caused cell injury with decrease of viability, increase of apoptosis and ROS level, while DOR partly prevented the cell against injury induced by MPP. Bax, Cyt-c and cleaved-Caspase-12, 9 and 3 were increased, and meanwhile Bcl-2 was decreased in MPP stimulated cells, while those changes could be partly inhibited by DOR incubation. Furthermore, the phosphorylation level of PI3K, AKT and mTOR was suppressed by MPP, while DOR treatment could enhanced the level of phosphorylated-PI3K (p-PI3K), AKT (P-AKT) and mTOR. LY aggravated the injury of SH-SY5Y cells treated with MPP, and DOR could partly alleviate those effects. DOR had a protective effect against MPP induced injury of Parkinson's disease model cell through activating the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway. It suggests that DOR should be further explored in Parkinson's disease.