Do the genes of the innate immune response contribute to neuroprotection in Drosophila?

Abstract

A profound debate exists on the relationship between neurodegeneration and the innate immune response in humans. Although it is clear that such a relation exists, the causes and consequences of this complex association remain to be determined in detail. Drosophila is being used to investigate the mechanisms involved in neurodegeneration, and all genomic studies on this issue have generated gene catalogues enriched in genes of the innate immune response. We review the data reported in these publications and propose that the abundance of immune genes in studies of neurodegeneration reflects at least two phenomena: (i) some proteins have functions in both immune and nervous systems, and (ii) immune genes might also be of neuroprotective value in Drosophila. This review opens this debate in Drosophila, which could thus be used as an instrumental model to elucidate this question.