Selected Grantee Publications

Identifying Potential Dietary Treatments for Inherited Metabolic Disorders Using Drosophila Nutrigenomics

Martelli et al., Cell Reports. 2024.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221112472400189X?via%3Dihub=

Inherited metabolic disorders are known to cause severe neurological impairment and child mortality and can sometimes respond to dietary treatment; however, a suitable paradigm for testing diets is lacking for developing effective dietary treatment. In this study, researchers found that 26 of 35 Drosophila amino acid disorder models screened for disease–diet interactions displayed diet-altered development and/or survival. Among these models, researchers showed that dietary cysteine depletion normalizes metabolic profile and rescues development, neurophysiology, behavior, and life span in a model for isolated sulfite oxidase deficiency. These findings demonstrate the value of using Drosophila in studying diet-sensitive metabolic disorders and developing potential dietary therapies. Supported by ORIP (R24OD031447) and NHGRI.