Cited by 167Alzheimer's disease research and treatmentsNeurobiology and Insect Physiology ResearchDementia and Cognitive Impairment Research

Functional screening in Drosophila identifies Alzheimer's disease susceptibility genes and implicates Tau-mediated mechanisms

Open access
Shulman, J. M., Imboywa, S., Giagtzoglou, N., Powers, M. P., Hu, Y., Devenport, D., Chipendo, P., Chibnik, L. B. +5 more·2014·Human Molecular Genetics

Abstract

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.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1093/hmg/ddt478

Cites

47 of 47 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Genetic screens identified p130CAS, Fak, Eph, Rab3-GEF, cindr, Fit1, Aret and Rhea, orthologs of CASS4, PTK2B, EPHA1, MADD, CD2AP, FERMT2, CELF1 and TLN2, as modulators of Tau toxicity.

    “Beyond BIN1, this approach identified p130CAS, Fak, Eph, Rab3-GEF, cindr, Fit1, Aret and Rhea respective orthologs of CASS4, PTK2B, EPHA1, MADD, CD2AP, FERMT2, CELF1 and TLN2 [26, 42, 119].”

    From The new genetic landscape of Alzheimer’s disease: from amyloid cascade to genetically driven synaptic failure hypothesis? (2019) · cites this paper as [119]

    The Results section and Table 2 (page unavailable in our copy) support cindr–CD2AP, Fit1–FERMT2 and aret–CELF1 as fly genes whose manipulation modifies Tau toxicity. They do not identify p130CAS–CASS4, Fak–PTK2B, Eph–EPHA1, Rab3-GEF–MADD or Rhea–TLN2 as screen hits, so this source supports only part of the attributed list. (LLM, conf=0.90)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • For previously reported loci, applying the same prioritization approach highlights several genes involved in APP metabolism (FERMT2, PICALM) or tau toxicity (BIN1, CD2AP, FERMT2, CASS4, PTK2B).

    “For previously reported loci, applying the same prioritization approach highlights several genes, as described in Fig. 2, some of which are involved in APP metabolism (FERMT2, PICALM) or tau toxicity (BIN1, CD2AP, FERMT2, CASS4, PTK2B)98–101.”
  • BDTOs increased expression of 4 genes including CD2AP (4.62 ± 0.45).

    “BDTOs increased expression of 4 genes including CD2AP (4.62 ± 0.45), previously implicated in tau-mediated toxicity (Shulman et al., 2014).”

    From iPSC-derived human microglia-like cells to study neurological diseases (2017) · cites this paper as Shulman et al., 2014

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Seshadri, S., Fitzpatrick, A.L., Ikram, M.A., DeStefano, A.L., Gudnason, V., Boada, M., Bis, J.C., Smith, A.V., Carassquillo, M.M., Lambert, J.C. et al. (2010) Genome-wide analysis of genetic loci associated with Alzheimer disease. JAMA, 303, 1832-1840. 876 Human Molecular Genetics, 2014, Vol. 23, No. 4

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Shulman, J. M., Imboywa, S., Giagtzoglou, N., Powers, M. P., Hu, Y., Devenport, D., Chipendo, P., Chibnik, L. B., Diamond, A., Perrimon, N., Brown, N. H., De Jager, P. L., & Feany, M. B.
Affiliations
  • Baylor College of Medicine (US)
  • Broad Institute (US)
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
  • University of Cambridge (GB)
Corresponding author
Shulman, J. M.
Venue
Human Molecular Genetics
Published
2013-09-25
Volume
23
Issue
4
Pages
870-877
ISSN
  • 0964-6906 (ISSN-L)
  • 1460-2083
OpenAlex
W2137709496
Cited by
167
References
47
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 1
FWCI
10.44
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Human Molecular Genetics (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
  • Burroughs Wellcome Fund
  • Ellison Medical Foundation
  • Wellcome Trust (086451, 092096)
  • National Institutes of Health (R01GM, R24OD011176)
  • National Institute on Aging (K25AG041906, K08AG034290)
  • National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01GM084947, R25GM076321)
  • National Center for Research Resources (C06RR029965)
  • Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P30HD018655)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
Keywords
Alzheimer's disease, neurofibrillary tangles, Drosophila model, genetic screen, CD2AP, FERMT2, CELF1, CD11b, ITGA9, cell adhesion, integrins, RNA interference
MeSH terms
Alzheimer Disease, Animals, Disease Models, Animal, Drosophila melanogaster, Humans, Integrins, tau Proteins, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Drosophila Proteins, Animals, Genetically Modified, RNA Interference, CD11b Antigen, Gene Knockdown Techniques, Genetic Association Studies

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review