School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Mukogawa Women's University, Nishinomiya, Hyogo 663-8179, Japan.
Parkinsons Dis. 2010 Dec 20;2011:212706. doi: 10.4061/2011/212706.
α-Synuclein (α-Syn) is a major component of protein inclusions known as Lewy bodies, which are hallmarks of synucleinopathies such as Parkinson's disease (PD). The α-Syn gene is one of the familial PD-causing genes and is also associated with an increased risk of sporadic PD. Numerous studies using α-Syn expressing transgenic animals have indicated that α-Syn plays a critical role in the common pathogenesis of synucleinopathies. Drosophila melanogaster has several advantages for modeling human neurodegenerative diseases and is widely used for studying their pathomechanisms and therapies. In fact, Drosophila models expressing α-Syn have already been established and proven to replicate several features of human PD. In this paper, we review the current research on synucleinopathies using α-Syn Drosophila models and, moreover, explore the possibilities of these models for comprehensive genetic analyses and large-scale drug screening towards elucidating the molecular pathogenesis and developing therapies for synucleinopathies.
α-突触核蛋白（α-Syn）是一种主要的蛋白质成分，被称为路易体，这是帕金森病（PD）等突触核蛋白病的标志。α-Syn 基因是家族性 PD 致病基因之一，也与散发性 PD 的风险增加有关。使用表达 α-Syn 的转基因动物的大量研究表明，α-Syn 在突触核蛋白病的常见发病机制中起关键作用。黑腹果蝇具有模拟人类神经退行性疾病的几个优势，并且广泛用于研究其发病机制和治疗方法。事实上，已经建立了表达 α-Syn 的果蝇模型，并已证明可复制人类 PD 的几种特征。在本文中，我们回顾了使用 α-Syn 果蝇模型研究突触核蛋白病的最新研究，并探讨了这些模型在全面的遗传分析和大规模药物筛选方面的可能性，以阐明分子发病机制并开发突触核蛋白病的治疗方法。
