Modeling human neurodegenerative disorders in Drosophila melanogaster
Sunidhi Kashyap, Placheril J. John and *Naresh Kumar Nirmal
Department of Zoology, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur-302004 (India) *nknirmal@outlook.com
ABSTRACT
Drosophila is a well-understood, genetically tractable model organism with approximately 75% of human disease-related genes having functional homologs. In the last two decades, Drosophila has contributed significantly to the fields of life sciences and drug discovery, owing to its powerful and unparalleled genetic tools that have provided intricate understanding of cellular and molecular pathways conserved in humans. Drosophila is suitable for elucidating disease-related complexities and can manifest responses to potential treatments. The genetic systems have revealed factors involved in pathological pathways, leading to the identification of novel druggable targets. In this review, we summarize Drosophila as a high-throughput model for recapitulating various aspects of major human neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer ’s disease, and Huntington’s disease, to identify active compounds and analyze their pharmacological properties by performing different assays. We also illustrate representative studies and findings executed in fruit fly models to explore their potential in therapeutic discovery, validation, and repositioning of effective drugs to manage and ameliorate these diseases, as well as their subsequent translation and validation in higher animal models.