title: Non-mammalian animal models of Parkinson's disease for drug discovery.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Parkinson's disease (PD) is a prevalent neurodegenerative disease affecting millions of predominantly elderly individuals worldwide. Despite intensive efforts devoted to drug discovery, the disease remains incurable. Compounding this problem is the current lack of a truly representative mammalian model of PD. However, a number of non-mammalian models of PD have been created in recent years that hold tremendous promise to accelerate our understanding of the disease as well as to transform the drug discovery process.
  
  
  METHODS
  This review provides an overview of the various Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila genetic models of PD that have been generated to date and discusses the utility of these model systems in the identification of molecules of potential therapeutic value for the PD patient.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Readers will appreciate the strengths (and limitations) of C. elegans and Drosophila in modeling salient features of the disease as well as their usefulness in uncovering novel gene-gene interaction and pathways relevant to PD pathogenesis. Readers will also appreciate how technological advancements have allowed the direct evaluation of novel compounds in these living models of PD in a virtually high-throughput manner.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Non-mammalian models of PD provide a valuable in vivo platform for drug screening. Unlike cell-based systems, these living models with an intact nervous system allow for a more meaningful evaluation of the neuroprotective properties of genetic and chemical modifiers to be conducted.
authors: National Neuroscience Institute, Neurodegeneration Research Laboratory, 11 Jalan Tan Tock Seng, 308433, Singapore  + 65 6357 7520 ;  +65 6256 9178 ;  Kah_Leong_Lim@nni.com.sg.
authors: Kah-Leong
authors: KL
authors: Lim