Fruit flies may hold key to unlocking Alzheimer’s
LOS ANGELES: Pesky fruit flies could soon hold the answer to one of the world’s most destructive human diseases, research has found.
Researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne and Australian National University have used fruit flies, known for devastating crops, to decipher an “unexplained connection” between Alzheimer’s disease and a genetic variation.
The study, using maggots under a microscope, has uncovered a possible cause of neurodegeneration in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. The find could lead to new treatments being developed.
It showed a genetic variation that causes the overproduction of the TOMM40 gene can cause brain shrinkage.
“We looked at the eyes of fly larvae under the microscope and found an increase in a protein that marks the activation of apoptosis, called ‘caspase-3’ in humans,” lead researcher of the WEHI-led team Agalya Periasamy said.
“If we can unpack this, we might be able to find a new way to intervene with the process to prevent neurons from dying.”