Tolls and neurotrophins in central nervous system regeneration and repair in Drosophila

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Cells in the central nervous system (CNS) have a natural ability to respond to change. Glial and neuronal number, axons, dendrites, circuits and synapses can be formed or eliminated during development and throughout life, such as with learning, exercise and experience. Normally, the balance between generative and destructive plasticity maintains structural integrity and appropriate behaviour. This balance fails with ageing, neurodegeneration and brain tumours. The CNS does not regenerate after damage, so injury to the brain or spinal cord, stroke and neurodegeneration (e.g. Alzheimer's disease) result in devastating permanent disability. Discovering and understanding genetic mechanisms underlying cell plasticity is key to promote regeneration and repair.Toll Like Receptors (TLRs) and neurotrophin (NT) ligands both promote generative and destructive cell change. TLRs underlie innate immunity. In the brain TLRs are in all cells, and alterations in TLRs underlie brain diseases, e.g. stroke, neurodegeneration, multiple sclerosis and anxiety. TLRs induce microglia activation and debris phagocytosis, cell survival and death, neurite growth and collapse. However their in vivo functions are poorly understood and their neuronal functions and endogenous CNS ligands, are both unknown. The NTs are the main neuroprotective factors, and NT problems underlie most brain diseases, from neurodegeneration to epilepsy and depression. NTs promote from neuronal survival and connectivity to synaptic transmission, in development, learning and with experience. NTs also have destructive functions. How NT functions are balanced in vivo, across cell types and circuits, is poorly understood.We discovered that Tolls are receptors for Drosophila neurotrophins (DNTs) in the fruit-fly, and that human NTs and TLRs can interact too. Drosophila is a very powerful model organism to identify gene networks and test gene function in vivo, and it is often used to investigate regeneration and repair. Genes discovered in fruit-flies are tested in mammals, expediting research findings for human health and minimizing animal use.We discovered a novel mechanism balancing cell survival and death during neural circuitry involving DNTs and Tolls. We also discovered a gene network underlying the glial regenerative response to injury that involves NFkB, the universal effector of Tolls and TLRs. Preliminary findings indicate that DNTs and Tolls could be involved in both glial and neuronal regeneration.Harnessing our recent findings, we aim to work out how glia and neurons elicit coordinated change, to promote regeneration and repair. We will test the hypothesis that distinct DNT/Toll/adaptor modules regulate the response of glial cells, neurons and neuron-glia interactions to injury. 22 genes and over 33 proteins are potentially involved. Our strategy will be to identify the modules most relevant for neurons or glia and test 2-5 in regeneration and repair. The objectives are: (1) to visualize a map of DNTs and Tolls in the ventral nerve cord (VNC), and select neuronal and glial pairs. (2) We anticipate some overlap and some specificity in DNT-Toll interactions, and differential affinities of Tolls for the adaptor Wek can shift their function from neuroprotective to pro-apoptotic. So to narrow down, we will test and select the most specific DNT-Toll, and Toll-Wek pairs. (3) Test whether the selected 2-5 DNT/Toll/adaptor modules regulate in vivo glial (cell debris phagocytosis, glial proliferation, axonal enwrapment) or neuronal (neuroprotection, neurogenesis, axonal/dendritic patterns and circuitry) responses to injury, and whether manipulating these genes promotes regeneration and repair.The outcome will be a gene network involving DNTs and Tolls for CNS regeneration and repair. Even if not all details were to be evolutionarily conserved, our framework will provide incisive predictions that can be tested in mammals, ultimately for the benefit of human health.