Fly study results suggest limitations to usefulness of a potential treatment for mitochondrial disorders

Kemppainen KK, Kemppainen E, Jacobs HT. The alternative oxidase AOX does not rescue the phenotype of tko25t mutant flies. G3 (Bethesda). 2014 Aug 21;4(10):2013-21. PMID: 25147191; PMCID: PMC4199707.

From the abstract: "A point mutation [technical knockout(25t) (tko(25t))] in the Drosophila gene coding for mitoribosomal protein S12 generates a phenotype of developmental delay and bang sensitivity. tko(25t) has been intensively studied as an animal model for human mitochondrial diseases ... Transgenic expression in Drosophila of the alternative oxidase (AOX) derived from Ciona intestinalis has previously been shown to mitigate the toxicity of respiratory chain inhibitors and to rescue mutant and knockdown phenotypes ... We therefore tested whether AOX expression could compensate the mutant phenotype of tko(25t) ... We conclude that AOX does not rescue tko(25t) and that the mutant phenotype is not solely due to limitations on electron flow in the respiratory chain, but rather to a more complex metabolic defect. The future therapeutic use of AOX in disorders of mitochondrial translation may thus be of limited value."