Rose Essential Oil Delayed Alzheimer's Disease-Like Symptoms by SKN-1 Pathway in C. elegans

There are no effective medications for delaying the progress of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common neurodegenerative disease in the world. In this study, our results with C. elegans showed that rose essential oil (REO) significantly inhibited AD-like symptoms of worm paralysis and hypersensivity to exogenous 5-HT in a dose-dependent manner. Its main components of β-citronellol and geraniol acted less effectively than the oil itself. REO significantly suppressed Aβ deposits and reduced the Aβ oligomers to alleviate the toxicity induced by Aβ overexpression. Additionally, the inhibitory effects of REO on worm paralysis phenotype were abrogated only after skn-1 RNAi but not daf-16 and hsf-1 RNAi. REO markedly activated the expression of gst-4 gene, which further supported SKN-1 signaling pathway was involved in the therapeutic effect of REO on AD C. elegans. Our results provided direct evidence on REO for treating AD on an organism level and relative theoretical foundation for reshaping medicinal products of REO in the future.