Potencial antioxidante e antiobesidade de frutas nativas do sul do brasil utilizando o modelo Caenorhabditis elegans

Abstract

Recently, interest in the consumption of native fruits has been growing, due to the beneficial potential for human health that they present, attributed to the presence of antioxidant substances such as phenolic compounds, vitamins and minerals that contribute to the prevention of many diseases. The butiá (Butia eriospatha) is a fruit originating from a palm tree belonging to the Arecaceae family, native to South America and the pitanga is a fruit of the pitangueira (Eugenia uniflora L.), belongs to the botanical family Myrtaceae, is a fruit plant native to the Brazil. This work aims to evaluate the antioxidant potential of the butiá fruit extract and the anti-obesity potential of the purple pitanga fruit extract using the experimental model Caenorhabditis elegans. Initially, experiments were carried out on survival, reproduction, resistance to oxidative stress, longevity, superoxide dismutase and catalase expression with the ethanolic extract of butiá fruit pulp. We observed that butiá extract did not affect the survival and egg laying of the worms, it was able to reverse the oxidative damage induced by hydrogen peroxide. Furthermore, butia extract increased the life expectancy of C. elegans under stress. The standardization of a model of induction of obesity by diet using liposomes with cholesterol in C. elegans was also carried out. And when the wild worms were treated with the ethanolic extract of the purple pitanga fruit, after cultivation in a medium with a high cholesterol content, the worms showed decreased levels of triglycerides, cholesterol, total lipids and glucose, in addition to an increase in longevity. In the food consumption test, we did not observe any significant change in food intake. Triglyceride levels in the RB1600 strain (tub-1 mutant) also decreased. The results demonstrate that the butiá extract is capable of prolonging the lifespan of the nematode C. elegans and that this effect may be mediated by an induced resistance to oxidative stress. Furthermore, the results indicate that the purple pitanga fruit extract plays an important role in reducing fat deposition, modulating cellular pathways for lipid accumulation and prolonging the lifespan of C. elegans.