Drosophila Models of Sporadic Parkinson's Disease

Abstract

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the most common cause of movement disorders and is characterized by the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. It is increasingly recognized as a complex group of disorders presenting widely heterogeneous symptoms and pathology. With the exception of the rare monogenic forms, the majority of PD cases result from an interaction between multiple genetic and environmental risk factors. The search for these risk factors and the development of preclinical animal models are in progress, aiming to provide mechanistic insights into the pathogenesis of PD. This review summarizes the studies that capitalize on modeling sporadic (i.e., nonfamilial) PD using Drosophila melanogaster and discusses their methodologies, new findings, and future perspectives.

Keywords: Drosophila; animal model; sporadic Parkinson’s disease.

Figure 1

The dopaminergic (DA) neurons in the adult fly brain. Schematics of the seven major clusters of DA neurons located in the anterior and posterior brain [24,25,36]. The protocerebral anterior lateral (PAL) and protocerebral anterior medial (PAM) clusters reside in the anterior brain. Major posterior clusters include the protocerebral posterior medial 1, 2, and 3 (PPM1, PPM2, and PPM3, respectively) and the protocerebral posterior lateral clusters 1 and 2 (PPL1 and PPL2, respectively).