Effects of yerba mate administration on autophagy in Drosophila melanogaster

Previous studies showed that yerba mate (YM) extracts and some of its bioactive compounds, such as chlorogenic acid, exert a neuroprotective effect on cultured dopaminergic neurons. Likewise, results in SH-SY5Y cells show that YM treatment induces AMPK activation and an increase in LC3-positive puncta, suggesting that autophagy is involved in its mechanism of action. To support these observations and provide a basis for understanding the link between yerba mate-derived compounds and autophagy regulation, we evaluated the ability of YM to induce autophagy in vivo in the Drosophila melanogaster larval fat body. Drosophila larvae were fed increasing concentrations of YM and, after 48 h, autophagy induction levels were determined using the Atg8-Ch-GFP reporter. Through the acquisition and analysis of confocal microscopy images of the tissue, we established that the most effective concentration for inducing the autophagic process is 10 mg/ml. Upon treating larvae with this concentration, we evaluated additional autophagy markers, which showed a distribution consistent with induction of this process. Characterization of the cellular and molecular mechanisms induced by yerba mate will lay the groundwork for future research aimed at evaluating the neuroprotective potential of these compounds in the context of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's disease.