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Unlocking nature's medicine cabinet through Drosophila-Driven exploration
Xiao Sheng1, Jianzheng He2, Lei Zhang3
1Department of Pharmaceutical Botany, School of Pharmacy, Naval Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China.
Summary
Fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) models offer a cost-effective platform for screening natural products, accelerating the discovery of novel medicines. This review highlights their utility in identifying new therapeutic agents for various diseases.
Area of Science:
- Biomedicine and Pharmacology
- Natural Product Chemistry
- Drug Discovery
Background:
- Natural compounds are valuable therapeutic agents but remain underutilized.
- Drosophila melanogaster serves as a powerful model organism for biomedical research.
- Drosophila models are underused in natural product screening for drug discovery.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the utility and advantages of Drosophila models for natural product research.
- To demonstrate how Drosophila aids in understanding natural product mechanisms.
- To highlight Drosophila's role in therapeutic development of natural products.
Main Methods:
- Systematic literature review (PubMed, 2015-2025).
- Keywords: Drosophila, natural products, compound, medicine, drug, disease model.
- PRISMA guidelines followed for methodological rigor.
Main Results:
- Drosophila models provide reproducible phenotypic readouts.
- Well-established genetic tools and cost-effectiveness are key advantages.
- Successful applications across diverse disease contexts were identified.
Conclusions:
- A framework for using Drosophila in high-throughput screening of natural products is proposed.
- Systematic integration of Drosophila into drug discovery pipelines is recommended.
- Enhancing natural product drug discovery through Drosophila models.
