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Updated: Jul 21, 2026

Purification of Transcripts and Metabolites from Drosophila Heads
Published on: March 15, 2013
Chaperone suppression of alpha-synuclein toxicity in a Drosophila model for Parkinson's disease
Pavan K Auluck1, H Y Edwin Chan, John Q Trojanowski
1Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania and University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Abstract:
Parkinson's disease is a movement disorder characterized by degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta. Dopaminergic neuronal loss also occurs in Drosophila melanogaster upon directed expression of alpha-synuclein, a protein implicated in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease and a major component of proteinaceous Lewy bodies. We report that directed expression of the molecular chaperone Hsp70 prevented dopaminergic neuronal loss associated with alpha-synuclein in Drosophila and that interference with endogenous chaperone activity accelerated alpha-synuclein toxicity. Furthermore, Lewy bodies in human postmortem tissue immunostained for molecular chaperones, also suggesting that chaperones may play a role in Parkinson's disease progression.

