Mitochondrial function and cellular energy maintenance during aging in a Drosophila melanogaster model of Parkinson disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease characterized by movement disorders as well as loss of dopaminergic neurons. Moreover, genes affecting mitochondrial function, such as SNCA, Parkin, PINK1, DJ-1 and LRRK2, were demonstrated to be associated with PD and other neurodegenerative disease. Additionally, mitochondrial dysfunction and cellular energy imbalance are common markers found in PD. In this study, we used the pink1 null mutants of Drosophila melanogaster as a Parkinson’s disease model to investigate how the energetic pathways and mitochondrial functions change during aging in a PD model. In our study, the loss of the pink1 gene decreased the survival percent and the decreased climbing index during aging in pink1−/− flies. Furthermore, there was an impairment in mitochondrial function demonstrated by a decrease in OXPHOS CI&CII-Linked and ETS CI&CII-Linked in pink1−/− flies at 3, 15 and 30 days of life. Interestingly, OXPHOS CII-Linked and ETS CII-Linked presented decreases only at 15 days of life in pink1−/− flies. Moreover, there was an increase in peroxide (H2O2) levels in pink1−/− flies at 15 and 30 days of life. Loss of the pink1 gene also decreased the activity of citrate synthase (CS) and increased the activity of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in pink1−/− flies head. Our results demonstrate a metabolic shift in ATP production in pink1−/− flies, which changed from oxidative to glycolytic pathways from 15 days of age, and is apparently more pronounced in the central nervous system.