Sule Ayla, Halil Ibrahim Saygi, Merve Sahin, Ebru Ciftkaya, Aysu Kilic, Sadrettin Pence, Fatemeh Bahadori, Elif Gelenli Dolanbay, Birsen Elibol
İstanbul Kuzey Klinikleri Dergisi - 2025;12(5):531-539
OBJECTIVE: Autophagy plays a crucial role in neuroprotection by helping to clear toxic substances, like misfolded proteins. In neurodegeneration, autophagy is impaired leading to the accumulation of harmful proteins that disrupt neuronal function, promote inflammation, and contribute to the degeneration of brain cells. Therefore, because of its anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative actions, the effects of Urtica dioica (UD) on the proteins of autophagy signaling pathways was studied in the hippocampus of rats with streptozotocin-(STZ) induced neurodegeneration. METHODS: Neurodegeneration model of rats was induced by intracerebroventricular injection of STZ (3 mg/kg) to observe both cognitive deficits and autophagic dysfunction. Then, the rats in the treatment group were consumed UD at the dose of 50 mg/kg/day for 4 weeks. At the end of 4 weeks, passive avoidance test was applied for cognitive functions and hippocam - pal tissue of rats were investigated to determine the changes in the proteins related to autophagy by western blotting and immunofluoresecence. RESULTS: UD treatment slightly attenuated the STZ-induced memory deficiencies in the rats. In addition, an increase in the autophagy was noted by increasing the expression of Beclin, ATG5, and LC3beta proteins in the STZ-UD group compared to the STZ group. CONCLUSION: In summary, UD may be a candidate molecule as a therapeutic strategy to protect neurons in neurodegen- eration through increasing autophagy to reduce toxic protein accumulation.
