Drosophila Melanogaster as a Model Organism for Dementia
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In the quest for understanding human neurodegenerative disorders, a variety of organisms have been used to create disease
            models. Because of its many advantages, Drosophila melanogaster
 is currently being used to model many human conditions including poly Q expansion disorders such as Huntington’s disease,
            Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and other dementias. AD is characterized by two pathologies; the first, extracellular
            amyloid β (Aβ) plaques, consist mainly of toxic Aβ42
 peptide, and the second, intracellular neurofibrillary tangles, consists mainly of hyperphosphorylated tau
 protein. Drosophila
 AD models have focused either on replicating the amyloid precursor protein (APP) processing model (Aβ is a proteolytic product
            of APP) or on expression of simpler secreted Aβ peptides in the fly nervous system. These models replicate many of the features
            of human AD, including Aβ deposition, neuronal loss and neurodegeneration, and behavioral phenotypes such as impaired learning
            and memory. In recent years, following the characterization of these models, focus has shifted to utilizing the genetic power
            of Drosophila
 and screens are being conducted for identifying modifiers of AD pathology.
         
      








