(PD)-like lesions in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) rats. The T2DM model was established by feeding Sprague Dawley (SD) rats with high-fat diet and intraperitoneal injection of streptozocin (STZ). The rats were intragastrically administered with DHM (125 or 250 mg/kg per day) for 24 weeks. The motor ability of the rats was measured by balance beam experiment, the changes of dopaminergic (DA) neurons and the expression of autophagy initiation related protein ULK1 in the midbrains of the rats were detected by immunohistochemistry, and the protein expression levels of α-synuclein (α-syn), tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), as well as AMPK activation level, in the midbrains of the rats were detected by Western blot. The results showed that, compared with normal control, the rats with long-term T2DM exhibited motor dysfunction, increased α-syn aggregation, down-regulated TH protein expression, decreased number of DA neurons, declined activation level of AMPK, and significantly down-regulated ULK1 expression in the midbrain. DHM (250 mg/ kg per day) treatment for 24 weeks significantly improved the above PD-like lesions, increased AMPK activity, and up-regulated This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (No. 2018JJ2347, 2021JJ30595) and Hunan University Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Project, China (No. S202010555125). #These authors contributed equally to this work. *Corresponding authors. FENG Shui-Dong: E-mail: shuidong-f@hotmail.com. LING Hong-Yan: E-mail: linghongyan0203@126.
