TY - JOUR T1 - Functional screening in Drosophila identifies Alzheimer's disease susceptibility genes and implicates Tau-mediated mechanisms. JF - Hum Mol Genet Y1 - 2014 A1 - Shulman, Joshua M A1 - Imboywa, Selina A1 - Giagtzoglou, Nikolaos A1 - Powers, Martin P A1 - Hu, Yanhui A1 - Devenport, Danelle A1 - Chipendo, Portia A1 - Chibnik, Lori B A1 - Diamond, Allison A1 - Perrimon, Norbert A1 - Brown, Nicholas H A1 - De Jager, Philip L A1 - Feany, Mel B KW - Alzheimer Disease KW - Animals KW - Animals, Genetically Modified KW - Antigens, CD11b KW - Disease Models, Animal KW - drosophila melanogaster KW - Drosophila Proteins KW - Gene Knockdown Techniques KW - Genetic Association Studies KW - Genetic Predisposition to Disease KW - Humans KW - Integrins KW - RNA Interference KW - tau Proteins AB -

Using a Drosophila model of Alzheimer's disease (AD), we systematically evaluated 67 candidate genes based on AD-associated genomic loci (P < 10(-4)) from published human genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Genetic manipulation of 87 homologous fly genes was tested for modulation of neurotoxicity caused by human Tau, which forms neurofibrillary tangle pathology in AD. RNA interference (RNAi) targeting 9 genes enhanced Tau neurotoxicity, and in most cases reciprocal activation of gene expression suppressed Tau toxicity. Our screen implicates cindr, the fly ortholog of the human CD2AP AD susceptibility gene, as a modulator of Tau-mediated disease mechanisms. Importantly, we also identify the fly orthologs of FERMT2 and CELF1 as Tau modifiers, and these loci have been independently validated as AD susceptibility loci in the latest GWAS meta-analysis. Both CD2AP and FERMT2 have been previously implicated with roles in cell adhesion, and our screen additionally identifies a fly homolog of the human integrin adhesion receptors, ITGAM and ITGA9, as a modifier of Tau neurotoxicity. Our results highlight cell adhesion pathways as important in Tau toxicity and AD susceptibility and demonstrate the power of model organism genetic screens for the functional follow-up of human GWAS.

VL - 23 IS - 4 U1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24067533?dopt=Abstract ER -