Black chokeberry (×Sorbaronia mitschurinii) fruit extract affects the survival of Drosophila melanogaster with the model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis depending on the concentration

The modern society takes a keen interest in healthy longevity and possibilities of slowing down the age-related diseases. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease that declares itself in adult people (at the age of about 60 years) and is characterized by loss of motor activity, degeneration of motor neurons in brain and spinal cord, and, finally, by respiratory arrest. The disease is currently incurable with its action mechanisms largely understudied but the scientists actively search for therapeutic drugs to further reduce the number of possible complications and delay the negative effects of the disease. Previously, we demonstrated the positive heroprotective potential of black chokeberry (×Sorbaronia mitschurinii) extract on the wild-type line Canton-S on short-term application and observed the increase in the median lifespan of males and females of the elav[c155]-Gal4>UAS-Aβ42 line, which is a model of Alzheimer’s disease in Drosophila. In the present work, we proposed a hypothesis on a possible positive effect of black chokeberry extract at concentrations of 0.1, 1, 5 and 10 mg/mL on the survival of a Drosophila line with the model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (with mutation in the Sod1n1 gene). We found that the ethanolic extract of black chokeberry fruits at a concentration of 0.1 mg/mL increased the median lifespan of males by 22 %. When the extract was added to food at concentrations of 1 and 5 mg/mL, we observed a decrease in median and maximum lifespan of males by 14 and 33 %, respectively. However, the ethanolic extract of black chokeberry at any concentrations studied had no statistically significant effect on the survival of females. These results indicate a potential neuroprotective effect of the extract of black chokeberry fruits.