Discussions with R. Cagan, editor-in-chief of Disease Models & Mechanisms, freely available online.

Cagan R. Bench to bedside with fruit flies: an interview with Ross Cagan. Dis Model Mech. 2013 May;6(3):567-9. doi: 10.1242/dmm.012443.  PMID: 23616076; PMCID: PMC3634641.

Cagan RL, Justice MJ, Tidmarsh GF. Bridging the gap between basic and applied biology: towards preclinical translation. Dis Model Mech. 2013 May;6(3):559-61.doi: 10.1242/dmm.012450. PMID: 23616075; PMCID: PMC3634639.

Production and testing of a nanocomposite drug using fly models of Parkinson's Disease. Recent report.

Siddique YH, Khan W, Singh BR, Naqvi AH. Synthesis of alginate-curcumin nanocomposite and its protective role in transgenic Drosophila model of Parkinson's disease. ISRN Pharmacol. 2013 Sep 19;2013:794582. PMID: 24171120.

New fly model: Autism spectrum disorders. Recent report.

Hahn N, Geurten B, Gurvich A, Piepenbrock D, Kästner A, Zanini D, Xing G, Xie W, Göpfert MC, Ehrenreich H, Heinrich R. Monogenic heritable autism gene neuroligin impacts Drosophila social behaviour. Behav Brain Res. 2013 Sep 1;252:450-7. PMID: 23792025.

From the abstract:  "... Drosophila can thus be used to study the contribution of Neuroligins to synaptic function, social interactions and their implication in ASDs. "

Interplay between diet and cancer. Recent report

Hirabayashi S, Baranski TJ, Cagan RL. Transformed Drosophila cells evade diet-mediated insulin resistance through wingless signaling. Cell. 2013 Aug 1;154(3):664-75. PMID: 23911328; PMCID: PMC3800019.

Flies & booze. Recent review.

Devineni AV, Heberlein U. The evolution of Drosophila melanogaster as a model for alcohol research. Annu Rev Neurosci. 2013 Jul 8;36:121-38. PMID: 23642133.

From the abstract:  "... we describe the ecological relationship between flies and ethanol, the effects of ethanol on fly development and behavior, the use of flies as a model for alcohol addiction, and the interaction between ethanol and social behavior. We discuss ... their utility to help decipher the mechanisms underlying the diverse effects of ethanol, including those that mediate ethanol dependence and addiction in humans."

Flies & frontotemporal dementia (FTD3). New study implicates Notch signaling. Recent report.

Cheruiyot A, Lee JA, Gao FB, Ahmad ST. Expression of mutant CHMP2B, an ESCRT-III component involved in frontotemporal dementia, causes eye deformities due to Notch misregulation in Drosophila. FASEB J. 2013 Oct 24. PMID: 24158394.

Fly study sheds light on Pink1/Parkin pathway. Recent report relevant to Parkinson's Disease.

de Castro IP, Costa AC, Celardo I, Tufi R, Dinsdale D, Loh SH, Martins LM. Drosophila ref(2)P is required for the parkin-mediated suppression of mitochondrial dysfunction in pink1 mutants. Cell Death Dis. 2013 Oct 24;4:e873. PMID: 24157867.

From the abstract:  We conclude that Ref(2)P [the fly ortholog of mammalian sequestrome-1 (p62/SQSTM1)] is a crucial downstream effector of a pathway involving Pink1 and Parkin and is responsible for the maintenance of a viable pool of cellular mitochondria by promoting their aggregation and autophagic clearance.

Fly model & drug development for neurodegenerative disease. Copper chelator. Recent report.

Singh SK, Sinha P, Mishra L, Srikrishna S. Neuroprotective Role of a Novel Copper Chelator against Aβ 42 Induced Neurotoxicity. Int J Alzheimers Dis. 2013;2013:567128. PMID: 24159420; PMCID: PMC3789492.

Using fly models of neurodegenerative disease for drug discovery. Recent review.

Konsolaki M. Fruitful research: drug target discovery for neurodegenerative diseases in Drosophila. Expert Opin Drug Discov. 2013 Oct 23. PMID: 24151920.

From the abstract:  "Expert opinion: Full genome genetic screens in Drosophila can lead to the rapid identification of drug target candidates that can be subsequently validated in a vertebrate system."

Fruit flies & Cornelia de Lange syndrome. Recent review.

Dorsett D. What fruit flies can tell us about human birth defects. Mo Med. 2013 Jul-Aug;110(4):309-13. PMID: 24003648.

From the abstract: "Here we describe how understanding a gene's function in fruit flies has illuminated the etiology of Cornelia de Lange syndrome."

Cuts & closure. Fly models of wound healing. Recent methods report.

Burra S, Wang Y, Brock AR, Galko MJ. Using Drosophila larvae to study epidermal wound closure and inflammation. Methods Mol Biol. 2013;1037:449-61. PMID: 24029952.

TDP-43 fly model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Recent report.

Choksi DK, Roy B, Chatterjee S, Yusuff T, Bakhoum MF, Sengupta U, Ambegaokar S, Kayed R, Jackson GR. TDP-43 Phosphorylation by Casein Kinase I{epsilon} Promotes Oligomerization and Enhances Toxicity In Vivo. Hum Mol Genet. 2013 Oct 8. PMID: 24105464.

Fly poly-Q disease model and heat-shock proteins. Recent report.

Kuo Y, Ren S, Lao U, Edgar BA, Wang T. Suppression of polyglutamine protein toxicity by co-expression of a heat-shock protein 40 and a heat-shock protein 110. Cell Death Dis. 2013 Oct 3;4:e833. PMID: 24091676.

Autolysosomes & neurodegeneration. Recent review.

Ambegaokar SS, Jackson GR. The downward spiral of tau and autolysosomes: a new hypothesis in neurodegeneration. Autophagy. 2012 Jul 1;8(7):1144-5. PMID: 22635052; PMCID: PMC3429552.

Fly screening & Alzheimer's disease. Recent report.

Shulman JM, Imboywa S, Giagtzoglou N, Powers MP, Hu Y, Devenport D, Chipendo P, Chibnik LB, Diamond A, Perrimon N, Brown NH, De Jager PL, Feany MB. Functional screening in Drosophila identifies Alzheimer's disease susceptibility genes and implicates Tau-mediated mechanisms. Hum Mol Genet. 2013 Oct 9. PMID: 24067533.

Peripheral nerve disease & fly research. Review.

Lloyd TE. Axonal transport disruption in peripheral nerve disease: From Jack's discoveries as a resident to recent contributions. J Peripher Nerv Syst. 2012 Dec;17 Suppl 3:46-51. PMID:
23279432.

Flies & neurodegenerative diseases. Recent review.

Lenz S, Karsten P, Schulz JB, Voigt A. Drosophila as a screening tool to study human neurodegenerative diseases. J Neurochem. 2013 Sep 12. PMID: 24028575.

Hh signaling & disease. Recent review.

Briscoe J, Thérond PP. The mechanisms of Hedgehog signalling and its roles in development and disease. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2013 Jul;14(7):416-29. PMID: 23719536.

Anesthesia, Alzheimer's disease & flies. Recent report.

Chen CW, Lin WY, Chen KB, Wu YS, Kuo YC, Liu HP, Li CY. Inhalational Anesthetic Sevoflurane Rescues Retina Function in Alzheimer's Disease Transgenic Drosophila. Curr Alzheimer Res. 2013 Oct 10. PMID: 24117114.

Methylene blue, atxia & flies. Recent report.

Tricoire H, Palandri A, Bourdais A, Camadro JM, Monnier V. Methylene blue rescues heart defects in a Drosophila model of Friedreich's ataxia. Hum Mol Genet. 2013 Oct 8. PMID: 24105471.

Copper, flies and Alzheimer's disease. Recent report.

Lang M, Fan Q, Wang L, Zheng Y, Xiao G, Wang X, Wang W, Zhong Y, Zhou B. Inhibition of human high-affinity copper importer Ctr1 orthologous in the nervous system of Drosophila ameliorates Aβ42-induced Alzheimer's disease-like symptoms. Neurobiol Aging. 2013 Nov;34(11):2604-12.PMID: 23827522; PMCID: PMC3770863.

Flies & neuroblastoma. Recent report.

Chand D, Yamazaki Y, Ruuth K, Schönherr C, Martinsson T, Kogner P, Attiyeh EF, Maris J, Morozova O, Marra MA, Ohira M, Nakagawara A, Sandström PE, Palmer RH, Hallberg B. Cell culture and Drosophila model systems define three classes of anaplastic lymphoma kinase mutations in neuroblastoma. Dis Model Mech. 2013 Mar;6(2):373-82. PMID: 23104988; PMCID: PMC3597019.

Flies & Gaucher disease. Recent report.

Maor G, Rencus-Lazar S, Filocamo M, Steller H, Segal D, Horowitz M. Unfolded protein response in Gaucher disease: from human to Drosophila. Orphanet J Rare Dis. 2013 Sep 11;8(1):140. PMID: 24020503.

Flies & Huntington's Disease. Recent review.

Krench M, Littleton JT. Modeling Huntington disease in Drosophila: Insights into axonal transport defects and modifiers of toxicity. Fly (Austin). 2013 Sep 10;7(4). PMID: 24022020.

Fly study links intellectual disability gene and parkin-dependent mitophagy. Recent report.

Haddad DM, Vilain S, Vos M, Esposito G, Matta S, Kalscheuer VM, Craessaerts K, Leyssen M, Nascimento RM, Vianna-Morgante AM, De Strooper B, Van Esch H, Morais VA, Verstreken P. Mutations in the intellectual disability gene Ube2a cause neuronal dysfunction and impair parkin-dependent mitophagy. Mol Cell. 2013 PMID: 23685073.

From the abstract:  "we identify RAD6A as a regulator of Parkin-dependent mitophagy and establish a critical role for RAD6A in maintaining neuronal function."

Retinal degeneration-related fly study. Recent report.

Lee J, Song M, Hong S. Negative regulation of the novel norpA(P24) suppressor, diehard4, in the endo-lysosomal trafficking underlies photoreceptor cell degeneration. PLoS Genet. 2013 Jun;9(6):e1003559. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1003559. PMID: 23754968; PMCID: PMC3674991.

Fly kidney stone model & juices. Recent report.

Ho CY, Chen YH, Wu PY, Chang CH, Chen HY, Man KM, Shen JL, Tsai FJ, Lin WY, Lee YJ, Chen WC. Effects of commercial citrate-containing juices on urolithiasis in a Drosophila model. Kaohsiung J Med Sci. 2013 Sep;29(9):488-93. PMID: 24018152.