Neuronal effect of 0.3 % DMSO and the synergism between 0.3 % DMSO and loss function of UCH-L1 on Drosophila melanogaster model

Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is a polar aprotic solvent which is widely used in biological and medical studies and as a vehicle for pharmacological therapy. DMSO from 0.1 % to 0.5 %, particularly 0.3 % is commonly used as solvent to dissolve compounds when testing their effect on living cell, tissues including nerve cell. However, scientific data on the effects of DMSO on nervous system is limited. Here, we present our data of case study on investigation the effects of DMSO at 0.3 % concentration on nerve cell of Drosophila melanogaster model. We found that 0.3 % DMSO concentration had affected on the active zone and glutamate receptor. Notably, this study also revealed the synergistic effect of 0.3 % DMSO and loss function of dUCH (the homolog of Ubiquitin Carboxyl terminal Hydrolase -L1, UCH-L1 in D. melanogaster). This combination caused more serious abnormalities in synapse structure, particularly number of boutons on Neuromuscular Junction, NMJ. Furthermore, 0.3 % DMSO reduced the amount of ubiquitinylated protein aggregates in the indirect flight muscle of both normal and genectic defect fly model. Taken together, data in this sytudy indicated that 0.3 % DMSO caused the aberrant morphology of the synaptic structure and decreased the number of ubiquitinylated proteins in the indirect flight muscle of Drosophila. The data from the study contributed new evidence of the effects of DMSO on the nervous system. Signigicantly, this study revealed that DMSO affected on neuron cell at low concentration which widely used as pharmacological solvent.