Fly research links innate immunity and neurodegenerative disease. Recent Review.

Petersen AJ, Wassarman DA. Drosophila innate immune response pathways moonlight in neurodegeneration. Fly (Austin). 2012 Jul 1;6(3). PubMed PMID: 22864563.

Relevant genes include tefu (also called ATM for Ataxia-telangiectasia mutated) and specifically, flies carrying the temperature-sensitive "8" allele of ATM are used as a model of Ataxia-telangiectasia (also called Louis-Bar syndrome). The relevant stock at the BDSC appears to be this one.

The review features work from these three research publications.

Petersen AJ, Rimkus SA, Wassarman DA. ATM kinase inhibition in glial cells activates the innate immune response and causes neurodegeneration in Drosophila. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Mar 13;109(11):E656-64. Epub 2012 Feb 21. PubMed PMID: 22355133; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3306708.

Chinchore Y, Gerber GF, Dolph PJ. Alternative pathway of cell death in Drosophila mediated by NF-κB transcription factor Relish. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Mar 6;109(10):E605-12. Epub 2012 Feb 10. PubMed PMID: 22328149; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3309745.

Tan L, Schedl P, Song HJ, Garza D, Konsolaki M. The Toll-->NFkappaB signaling pathway mediates the neuropathological effects of the human Alzheimer's Abeta42 polypeptide in Drosophila. PLoS One. 2008;3(12):e3966. Epub 2008 Dec 17. PubMed PMID: 19088848; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2597734.