Small molecule drug screening in Drosophila identifies the 5HT2A receptor as a feeding modulation target

Sci Rep. 2013:3:srep02120. doi: 10.1038/srep02120.

Abstract

Dysregulation of eating behavior can lead to obesity, which affects 10% of the adult population worldwide and accounts for nearly 3 million deaths every year. Despite this burden on society, we currently lack effective pharmacological treatment options to regulate appetite. We used Drosophila melanogaster larvae to develop a high-throughput whole organism screen for drugs that modulate food intake. In a screen of 3630 small molecules, we identified the serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine or 5-HT) receptor antagonist metitepine as a potent anorectic drug. Using cell-based assays we show that metitepine is an antagonist of all five Drosophila 5-HT receptors. We screened fly mutants for each of these receptors and found that serotonin receptor 5-HT2A is the sole molecular target for feeding inhibition by metitepine. These results highlight the conservation of molecular mechanisms controlling appetite and provide a method for unbiased whole-organism drug screens to identify novel drugs and molecular pathways modulating food intake.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Appetite / drug effects
  • Drosophila / drug effects*
  • Feeding Behavior / drug effects*
  • Methiothepin / pharmacology
  • Receptor, Serotonin, 5-HT2A / drug effects*
  • Receptor, Serotonin, 5-HT2A / physiology
  • Serotonin Antagonists / pharmacology
  • Small Molecule Libraries

Substances

  • Receptor, Serotonin, 5-HT2A
  • Serotonin Antagonists
  • Small Molecule Libraries
  • Methiothepin