Cerebral Innate Immunity in Drosophila Melanogaster

Modeling innate immunity in Drosophila melanogaster has a rich history that includes ground-breaking discoveries in pathogen detection and signaling. These studies revealed the evolutionary conservation of innate immune pathways and mechanisms of pathogen detection, resulting in an explosion of findings in the innate immunity field. In D. melanogaster, studies have focused primarily on responses driven by the larval fat body and hemocytes, analogs to vertebrate liver and macrophages, respectively. Aside from pathogen detection, many recent mammalian studies associate innate immune pathways with development and disease pathogenesis. Importantly, these studies stress that the innate immune response is integral to maintain central nervous system (CNS) health. Microglia, which are the vertebrate CNS mononuclear phagocytes, drive vertebrate cerebral innate immunity. The invertebrate CNS contains microglial-like cells – ensheathing glia and reticular glia – that could be used to answer basic questions regarding the evolutionarily conserved innate immune processes in CNS development and health. A deeper understanding of the relationship between D. melanogaster phagocytic microglial-like cells and vertebrate microglia will be key to answering basic and translational questions related to cerebral innate immunity.