Spatial Metabolomics and Single-Cell Virtual Knockout Screening Reveal Solanesol Improves Parkinson's Disease-like Pathology Based on Lipid Inflammation Mechanism.

Background

Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by a complex interplay of dopaminergic degeneration, glial activation, and lipid metabolic dysregulation. However, accurately describing how natural product interventions remodel these pathologies across distinct brain regions and cellular microenvironments remains a critical challenge.

Methods

We established an integrated multi-omics framework to decode the neuroprotective mechanisms of solanesol (Sol) in an MPTP-induced PD mouse model. We combined single-cell eQTL-based Mendelian randomization (scMR), transcriptomic localization, and virtual knockout analyses to prioritize cell-type-specific regulatory nodes across neuronal, glial, and vascular populations, avoiding the limitations of traditional bulk targeting. In vivo behavioral assays were conducted, alongside orthogonal validation via airflow-assisted desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry imaging (AFADESI-MSI) and gene-metabolite co-enrichment analysis, to map regional metabolic networks and structural spatial reprogramming.

Results

Computational prioritization highlighted cell-type-specific regulatory nodes including PRKCB, PRKCE, PDGFRB, and FABP3/5. In vivo, Sol attenuated motor and cognitive deficits and largely restored the highly compartmentalized spatial distributions of striatal dopamine, L-DOPA, and acetylcholine. Crucially, AFADESI-MSI and co-enrichment analysis revealed that Sol specifically reversed MPTP-induced spatial disruptions by rescuing key neuromodulatory metabolites-including cervonoyl ethanolamide, phosphatidylcholine species, taurine, and NADHX-which were tightly coupled to sphingolipid signaling, fatty-acid transport, mitochondrial translation, and cell-adhesion pathways.

Conclusions

Sol ameliorates PD-like pathology not through a singular target, but by choreographing a spatially and cellularly compartmentalized restoration of lipid-inflammatory homeostasis. Furthermore, our integrated single-cell and spatial metabolomic blueprint sets a new methodological paradigm for elucidating the precise execution programs of natural neurotherapeutics.