Expression of Pink1 with α-synuclein in the dopaminergic neurons of Drosophila leads to increases in both lifespan and healthspan
Overexpression of the gene coding for α-synuclein has been shown to be an inherited cause of Parkinson disease. Our laboratory has previously co-expressed the parkin and Pink1 genes to rescue α-synuclein-induced phenotypes within a Drosophila model. To further investigate the effect of Pink1 in this model, we performed longevity and behavioral studies using several drivers to express the α-synuclein and Pink1 genes.