Eip74EF is a dominant modifier for ALS-FTD-linked VCP^R152H phenotypes in the Drosophila eye model

In 2012, Liu et al. reported that miR-34 is an age-related miRNA regulating age-associated events and long-term brain integrity in Drosophila. They demonstrated that modulating miR-34 and its downstream target, Eip74EF, showed beneficial effects on an age-related disease using a Drosophila model of Spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 expressing SCA3trQ78. These results imply that miR-34 could be a general genetic modifier and therapeutic candidate for age-related diseases. Thus, the goal of this study was to examine the effect of miR-34 and Eip47EF on another age-related Drosophila disease model.

Using a Drosophila eye model expressing mutant Drosophila VCP (dVCP) that causes amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), or multisystem proteinopathy (MSP), we demonstrated that abnormal eye phenotypes generated by dVCP^R152H were rescued by Eip74EF siRNA expression. Contrary to our expectations, miR-34 overexpression alone in the eyes with GMR-GAL4 resulted in complete lethality due to the leaky expression of GMR-GAL4 in other tissues. Interestingly, when miR-34 was co-expressed with dVCP^R152H, a few survivors were produced; however, their eye degeneration was greatly exacerbated. Our data indicate that, while confirming that the downregulation of Eip74EF is beneficial to the dVCP^R152HDrosophila eye model, the high expression level of miR-34 is actually toxic to the developing flies and the role of miR-34 in dVCP^R152H-mediated pathogenesis is inconclusive in the GMR-GAL4 eye model. Identifying the transcriptional targets of Eip74EF might provide valuable insights into diseases caused by mutations in VCP such as ALS, FTD, and MSP.