Transcriptomic study identifies quercetin and rutin as repurposed drugs for Parkinson’s Disease in in vitro 6-OHDA model

SH-SY5Y cells were treated with 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) to obtain an in vitro PD model. Transcriptome data were collected from both treated and untreated cells.We mapped significantly upregulated genes on a protein-protein interaction network to identify potential drug targets. Drugs targeting the selected drug targets were applied to 6-OHDA treated SH-SY5Y cells. Among the candidate drugs, quercetin and rutin were shown to be neuroprotective by effectively decreasing cell death. In total, 16 independent experiments were performed to obtain 8 untreated samples and 8 6-OHDA treated samples. Samples were collected at 12th and 18th hours from both treated and control experiments. Each group was run in four replicates.