Cellular and Molecular Biology

Wednesday  28/6/23 h. 2:00 pm -  Seminar
Hakeem O. Lawal
Delaware Center for Neuroscience Research and Department of Biological Sciences, Delaware State University, Dover, Delaware

Drosophila models of Parkinson’s Disease and Aging

Drosophila is an excellent model system for the study of many human neurological disorders and states. Parkinson’s disease represents one such example. The second most common neurological disease, it is characterized by the loss of dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra pars compacta. It has no known cure and current treatments cause severe side effects.
This status quo necessitates the deployment of every model system available to help accelerate progress towards understanding both the cause of the disease and the development of viable treatment strategies.

Here we present findings from our lab that demonstrate the utility of Drosophila as a model system to understand the possible underlying causes of this disease and to develop effective treatment strategies. Similarly, we present work from group establishing a role for cholinergic synaptic transmission in the central nervous system on behavioral changes that occur during aging. Moreover, we show that overexpression of the vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAChT), which mediates the packaging of acetylcholine into synaptic vesicles for exocytotic release, causes a reduction in lifespan and a decline in ACh-linked behaviors during aging. Together, our work adds importantly new light to the contributions of Drosophila as a model for advancing our understanding of both normal and pathological aging.

Host: Ferdinando Di Cunto | webex link