Striatal Metabolomic Profiling Links Brazilian Green Propolis to Suberic Acid Modulation and Nigrostriatal...

Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by progressive nigrostriatal degeneration and striatal dysfunction, yet its metabolic remodeling remains incompletely defined. Here, untargeted GC-MS metabolomics was used to investigate the effects of standardized Brazilian green propolis on the striatal metabolic profile in the 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) rat model. Discriminant metabolites, including suberic acid, gluconic acid, heptadecane, and tartaric acid, distinguished experimental groups, capturing key features of the metabolic response to dopaminergic injury and treatment. Suberic acid emerged as a prominently modulated metabolite, potentially linked to alterations in lipid catabolism associated with mitochondrial-peroxisomal pathways. Propolis treatment attenuated the elevation of suberic acid, accompanied by a reduction in gluconic acid levels, suggesting a metabolic profile linked to pathways involved in redox balance and glucose handling. Given previous reports identifying heptadecane as a hydrocarbon constituent of volatile propolis fractions, complementary GC-Q-TOF analyses demonstrated that heptadecane was absent from the administered extract, despite its consistent association with propolis-treated groups. Metabolic changes were accompanied by attenuation of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurodegeneration and improved motor performance. Together, these findings delineate a striatal metabolic signature associated with Brazilian green propolis and identify suberic acid as a key metabolite linked to neuroprotection in experimental Parkinsonism.