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Pharmacological prevention of Parkinson disease in Drosophila

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

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

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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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