Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease that affects over 60,000 people each year. Today, while there is no cure, there have been many successful studies on alleviating PD symptoms, such as epigallocatechin-gallate (EGCG), a flavonoid and antioxidant abundant in green tea. EGCG is one of many in the catechin family, the most common being (+)-catechin.

I am testing the effects of different concentrations of (+)-catechin on the suppression of PD in Drosophila melanogaster. While it has been studied that EGCG in green tea can alleviate PD symptoms, my study looks into a different catechin in fruits to test for similar results. The mutated flies have difficulty moving, so their motility will be tested with the hypothesis that they will become better climbers after consuming the catechin. The flies will be tested under 3 red lights, 9 cm from the vials. There will be ten flies per vial, and a line 3 cm above the base of the media. The vials will be lightly tapped so the flies fall to the bottom of the vial, and they will be given ten seconds to climb. The total number of flies above the line will be recorded. The data collected shows statistical significance between the normal control group and the PD mutant control group. This means that the flies are an appropriate model organism for humans.

A future study for this experiment might include testing out the other catechins in the catechin family to see if they have different results.