Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 19 pp 19785—19808

Cowpea extract reduces α-synuclein toxicity and aggregation. (A) CLS of yeast cells bearing pYX242 empty vector or pYX242-SNCA plasmid grown in SD medium containing 2% glucose in the absence or presence of 0.5% V. unguiculata extract. *p<0.05 relative to untreated cells bearing the empty vector, °p<0.05 relative to untreated α-synuclein expressing cells. (B, C) Immunofluorescence showing localization of α-synuclein in cells untreated or treated for 1 day with 0.5% V. unguiculata extract. The percentage of cells with α-synuclein localized in the cellular membrane is shown in (C). *p<0.05. (D) Western analysis using anti-α-synuclein antibody on cytolpasmic and membrane fractions isolated from wt [pYX242-SNCA] cells after 1-day treatment with 0.5% V. unguiculata extract. Pgk1 was used as cytoplasmic marker, Pma1 as membrane marker. (E, F) α-synuclein aggregation process followed by ThT fluorescence (E) and ANS binding (F) assays. (G) TEM pictures taken from α-synuclein aggregation mixture after 24 h and 72 h of incubation in the absence or in the presence of cowpea extract at molar ratio protein:extract 1:0.5 (E0.5) and 1:1 (E1); scale bars are shown.