Inhalational Aesthetic Sevoflurane Exacerbates Eye Phenotype of SCA3 Transgenic Drosophila Model

Background: Spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3) is an autosomal dominant inherited neurodegenerative disease. The features of SCA3 include extremely short life expectancies, motor functions, and eye phenotypes. Sevoflurane is one of the most frequently used inhalational anesthetics and shows both neuroprotective and neurotoxic effects. Previous studies showed neurotoxicity of sevoflurane exposure to Alzheimer’s disease models. However, the effect of sevoflurane inhalation on SCA3 is not clear. Materials and Methods: Here, we exposed sevoflurane to SCA3-transgenic Drosophila model with clinically relevant concentrations and observed the consequent change of survival, motor function, and eye phenotype of the flies. Results: We found that sevoflurane exposure exacerbated eye phenotype but not survival or motor function of male SCA3-transgenic flies. The percentage of ommatidium retinal cell number of male SCA3-transgenic flies with 0%, 2.1%, or 3% of sevoflurane exposure was 70.2 ± 4.8%, 64.8 ± 4.5%, or 46.8 ± 2.9% respectively (ANOVA F = 27.86, total df = 10, p = 0.0002), while sevoflurane exposure did not show any harm to the control flies. Conclusions: Our results may acknowledge the need for caution of the potential hazard of sevoflurane application on patients with SCA3 or other poly-Q related neurodegenerative diseases.