The Effect of Various Polyphenols on Associative Memory Loss and Dementia in a Drosophila melanogaster Model of Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), a prominent neurodegenerative disease (NDD), is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States; however, little is known about prevention. As a result, polyphenols (plant-based compounds) and other natural substances have been studied for their therapeutic potential in improving cognition and memory in AD cases. While the impacts of each polyphenol (phenolic acids, flavonoids, stilbenes, and lignans) contain fundamental similarities, each varies slightly in its impacts on the brain.The purpose of this study was to examine the impacts of polyphenol subgroups on associative memory in AD, tested by building an olfactory association, through the use of Drosophila melanogaster. It was hypothesized that if Drosophila groups were each fed a different polyphenol, the flavonoid group would display the least associative memory loss when tested for a learned memory because flavonoids reduce acetylcholine deficiency, aggregations and neurotoxicity in the brain. To test this, Drosophila were administered a phenolic acid, flavonoid, stilbene, lignan, or control solution for one week before experimentation. They were conditioned on olfactory appetitive assays (linking the odor 1-octanol to a sucrose reward) and then tested for memory acquisition using a Y-maze across four intervals.16 The results of this research rejected the null hypothesis, X²(4, N=150)>9.488, p