模式生物果蝇在中药活性评价及其治疗功效表征中的应用与展望

果蝇作为生命科学领域中重要的模式生物,被广泛用于人类疾病的研究,这些研究促进了对病理生理活动中相关蛋白分子表达和信号通路的理解,同时,也建立了诸多具有丰富遗传特征的果蝇品系。人们发现,这些果蝇品系作为一类新兴人类疾病模型,可以被应用于活性评价及药物筛选。中药活性评价技术与方法的匮乏是制约中医药发展的瓶颈问题之一。果蝇因其繁殖迅速、生命周期短、整体作用、品系丰富、与人类高度相关等特点,尤其适用于成分复杂的中药的活性评价与筛选。该文就近年来利用果蝇进行的衰老、神经退行性疾病、代谢紊乱及糖尿病、睡眠障碍、肠道免疫、生殖、肿瘤、心脏功能等疾病模型的研究及药物活性评价的研究进展进行了综述。

Application and prospect of model organism Drosophila melanogaster in activity evaluating and efficacy characterization of traditional Chinese medicine

The common fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, is a well studied and tractable genetic model organism for exploring molecular mechanisms of human diseases in biological science. The considerable work of Drosophila has promoted the comprehension of relative protein expressions and signaling pathways associated with pathological and physiological activities. Meanwhile, various strains of transgenic drosophila with diverse genetic features have been established. These fly strains can be applied into bioactivity evaluation and drug screen as an emerging human disease model. The development of Chinese medicine has been seriously restricted by lacking of techniques and methods in activity evaluation. D. melanogaster, because of its many distinguishing features, such as rapid reproduction, short life cycle, rich strains, entirety action, highly correlated with human and other characteristics, has become a desirable choice to study Chinese medicine which has complicated composition. Here, progress of researches based on flies in disease models and their application in drug evaluating were reviewed, including aging, neurodegenerative diseases, metabolic disorders and diabetes, sleep disorder, intestinal immunity, reproduction, cancer and cardiac function.