Parkinson’s disease (PD) is an incurable neurodegenerative
disorder caused by the selective loss of dopaminergic neurons in thesubstantia nigra pars compacta. Current therapies are only
symptomatic and are not able to stop or delay its progression. In
order to search for new and more effective therapies, our group carried
out a high-throughput screening assay, identifying several candidate
compounds that are able to improve locomotor ability inDJ-1βmutant flies (aDrosophilamodel
of familial PD) and reduce oxidative stress (OS)-induced lethality
inDJ-1-deficient SH-SY5Y human cells. One of them
was vincamine (VIN), a natural alkaloid obtained from the leaves ofVinca minor. Our results showed that VIN is able
to suppress PD-related phenotypes in bothDrosophilaand human cell PD models. Specifically, VIN reduced OS levels in
PD model flies. Besides, VIN diminished OS-induced lethality by decreasing
apoptosis, increased mitochondrial viability, and reduced OS levels
inDJ-1-deficient human cells. In addition, our results
show that VIN might be exerting its beneficial role, at least partially,
by the inhibition of voltage-gated sodium channels. Therefore, we
propose that these channels might be a promising target in the search
for new compounds to treat PD and that VIN represents a potential
therapeutic treatment for the disease.