Pharmacological prevention of Parkinson disease in Drosophila (original) (raw)

Nature Medicine volume 8, pages 1185–1186 (2002)Cite this article

To the editor

Geldanamycin is a naturally occurring benzoquinone ansamycin that specifically binds to and interferes with the activity of the molecular chaperone Hsp90 (ref. 6), a negative regulator of heat-shock factor7. Treating mammalian cells in culture with geldanamycin activates a stress response8. We hypothesized that feeding flies geldanamycin might protect against α-synuclein toxicity through the modulation of stress response pathways. A concentration of 3 μg/ml geldanamycin effectively inhibits Hsp90 activity in Drosophila9, thus we used this concentration in our study.

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Figure 1: Geldanamycin treatment prevents dopaminergic cell loss in α-synuclein transgenic flies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania and University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
    Pavan K. Auluck & Nancy M. Bonini
  2. Department of Biology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute University of Pennsylvania and University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
    Nancy M. Bonini

Authors

  1. Pavan K. Auluck
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  2. Nancy M. Bonini
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Correspondence toNancy M. Bonini.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Auluck, P., Bonini, N. Pharmacological prevention of Parkinson disease in Drosophila.Nat Med 8, 1185–1186 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1102-1185

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