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Role of Drosophila in Human Disease Research 4.0

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Pathology, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2024) | Viewed by 4939

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Applied Biology, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Kyoto 606-8585, Japan
Interests: Drosophila model for human disease; epigenetics; DNA replication gene; autism spectrum disorder
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Molecular and Clinical Sciences Research Institute, St George’s University of London, London SW17 0RE, UK
Interests: Drosophila models
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

For over a century, Drosophila melanogaster has been widely used in classical and modern genetics. Many biological functions are highly conserved between humans and Drosophila, and nearly 85% of human-disease-causing genes have functional homologues in Drosophila. Because of this, Drosophila has been used as a highly tractable animal model for studying human diseases, with notable success in the study of various neurodegenerative diseases, metabolic syndromes, and cancer. The similarities between the mammalian and Drosophila systems have also allowed Drosophila to play a role in the evaluation of candidate substances for the treatment of these human diseases.

More recently, based on similarities in the pathways involved in DNA replication, DNA repair pathways, physical and neurological properties, Drosophila models have also started to be used to study more complex psychiatric disorders, aging, and other rare intractable human genetic diseases. However, it is always important to keep in mind both the benefits and limitations of fly models by comparing them to other animal models, such as mouse, zebra fish, and nematode worm. For this Special Issue, we welcome original research and up-to-date review articles that provide novel insights into how Drosophila models (especially models of DNA replication and repair genes) have progressed the understanding of human disease.

Dr. Masamitsu Yamaguchi
Dr. Sue Cotterill
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • Drosophila melanogaster
  • human disease model
  • cancer
  • neurodegeneration
  • psychiatric disorder
  • mental retardation
  • metabolic syndrome
  • infectious disease
  • aging
  • epigenetic dysregulation
  • mitochondrial disorder
  • DNA replication or repair defects

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

16 pages, 1673 KiB  
Review
Drosophila melanogaster as a Translational Model System to Explore the Impact of Phytochemicals on Human Health
by Carlos Lopez-Ortiz, Celeste Gracia-Rodriguez, Samantha Belcher, Gerardo Flores-Iga, Amartya Das, Padma Nimmakayala, Nagamani Balagurusamy and Umesh K. Reddy
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(17), 13365; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms241713365 - 29 Aug 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 4417
Abstract
Fruits, vegetables, and spices are natural sources of bioactive phytochemicals, such as polyphenols, carotenoids, flavonoids, curcuminoids, terpenoids, and capsaicinoids, possessing multiple health benefits and relatively low toxicity. These compounds found in the diet play a central role in organism development and fitness. Given [...] Read more.
Fruits, vegetables, and spices are natural sources of bioactive phytochemicals, such as polyphenols, carotenoids, flavonoids, curcuminoids, terpenoids, and capsaicinoids, possessing multiple health benefits and relatively low toxicity. These compounds found in the diet play a central role in organism development and fitness. Given the complexity of the whole-body response to dietary changes, invertebrate model organisms can be valuable tools to examine the interplay between genes, signaling pathways, and metabolism. Drosophila melanogaster, an invertebrate model with its extensively studied genome, has more than 70% gene homology to humans and has been used as a model system in biological studies for a long time. The notable advantages of Drosophila as a model system, such as their low maintenance cost, high reproductive rate, short generation time and lifespan, and the high similarity of metabolic pathways between Drosophila and mammals, have encouraged the use of Drosophila in the context of screening and evaluating the impact of phytochemicals present in the diet. Here, we review the benefits of Drosophila as a model system for use in the study of phytochemical ingestion and describe the previously reported effects of phytochemical consumption in Drosophila. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Role of Drosophila in Human Disease Research 4.0)
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