Drug screening in Drosophila; why, when, and when not?

Wiley Interdiscip Rev Dev Biol. 2019 Nov;8(6):e346. doi: 10.1002/wdev.346. Epub 2019 May 5.

Abstract

The best global seller among oncology drugs in 2018 is lenalidomide, an analog of thalidomide. It took 53 years and a circuitous route from the discovery of thalidomide to approval of an analog for use in treatment of cancer. We understand now a lot more about the genetic and molecular basis of diseases than we did in 1953 when thalidomide was discovered. We have also no shortage of chemical libraries with hundreds of thousands of compounds, both synthetic and natural. What we need are better ways to search among these rich resources for compounds with the potential to do what we want them to do. This review summarizes examples from the literature that make Drosophila melanogaster a good model to screen for drugs, and discusses knowledge gaps and technical challenges that make Drosophila models not as widely used as they could or should be. This article is categorized under: Technologies > Analysis of Cell, Tissue, and Animal Phenotypes.

Keywords: Drosophila; cancer; drug-screening; neurodegeneration.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Disease Models, Animal*
  • Drosophila / drug effects
  • Drosophila / growth & development*
  • Drug Discovery / methods*
  • Drug Evaluation, Preclinical / methods*
  • Drugs, Investigational / pharmacology*
  • Humans
  • Translational Research, Biomedical

Substances

  • Drugs, Investigational