Chris Elliott's Home page

Chris Elliott, Lecturer in Biology at the University of York, UK

Role of Parkinson's disease genes in flies

Research outline

Model organisms, like flies, provide a rapid experimental system to study the causes of Parkinson's disease. I collaborate with Sean Sweeney, Alex Wade, Gareth Evans, Sangeeta Chawla, Gonzalo Blanco and Will Brackenbury within the York Neuroscience Group, where we focus on neurotransmission in model systems.

My key question is how cellular defects (e.g. faulty mitochondria) lead to physiological and behavioural abnormalities - In Parkinson's Disease (PD), why do some neurons die, while others function normally?

LRRK2

We find that flies expressing the G2019S mutation (but not other mutations in LRRK2) have accelerated loss of vision, and this is most pronounced when the G2019S transgene is expressed in just the dopaminergic neurons. Our data

suggests a hypothesis, that differences between older reports on visual defects in PD patients may arise from genetic differences between the patients.
shows that expressing the G2019S mutation in the dopaminergic neuron leads to loss of function in different kinds of neuron - e.g. the photoreceptors, which have nothing to do with dopamine.
shows that increasing the activity of the visual system accelerates the decline in the G2019S mutation

Details here.

Snails

My earlier work at York was with the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis. This is what the snails look like. In particular, I'm interested in how their nervous system controls feeding behaviour, because this is a really robust model system. A major part of my time was taken up with using laser ablation and pharmacological tools to analyze the neural circuits. My key finding was that octopamine is very important in the feeding system, as it modulates the behaviour at multiple levels, making it more efficient and longer lasting.

Computer Software

I (intermittently) write computer software to aid in the understanding of nervous systems: here is code for analysing Dasylab files and doing SSVEP tests on flies ; read (&download) all about the Hodgkin-Huxley simulation and Connor (with IA) models.

Recent publications include

84. Hindle, S., Afsari, F, Stark, M, Middleton, C.A., Evans, G J O, Sweeney, S T, and Elliott, C J H (2013) Dopaminergic expression of the Parkinsonian gene LRRK2-G2019S leads to non-autonomous visual neurodegeneration, accelerated by increased neural demands for energy. Hum. Mol. Genetics 22: 2129-2140 Abstract and free Full text
85. Hindle, S. & Elliot, C.J.H. (2013) Spread of neuronal degeneration in a dopaminergic, Lrrk2-G2019S model of Parkinson's disease. Autophagy. 9: 936-938. Abstract and Free Full text
86. Afsari, F., Christensen, K.V., Smith, G.P., Hentzer, M., Nippe, O.M., Elliott, C.J.H. and Wade, A.R. (2014) Abnormal visual gain control in a Parkinson's Disease model Hum. Mol. Genetics 23: 4465-4478 Abstract and free full text
88. Wade, A.R. and Elliott, C.J.H. (2014) Could the detection of visual disturbances associated with Parkinsons disease genes in flies lead to new treatments for the disease? Neurodegenerative Disease Management 4:291-293 Abstract and Free Full text
89. West, R. J.H. Furmston, R., Williams, C.A.C & Elliott, C.J.H. (2015) Neurophysiology of Drosophila models of Parkinson's Disease Parkinson's disease 2015:381281 Abstract and free full text
91. Smith, S.L., Lones, M., Bedder, M. Alty, J.A., Cosgrove, J., Maguire, R.J. & Pownall, M.E., Ivanoiu, D., Lyle, C., Cording, A. & Elliott, C.J.H., (2015) Computational models for understanding the diagnosis and treatment of Parkinsons disease. IET Systems Biology Abstract Full Text (Pubmed)
92. Mortiboys, H., Furmston, R., Bronstad, G., Aasly, J., Elliott, C.J.H., & Bandmann, O. (2015) UDCA exerts beneficial effect on mitochondrial dysfunction in LRRK2 G2019S carriers and in vivo. Neurology Abstract Free full text
93. West, R. J.H., Elliott, C.J.H. & Wade, A.R. (2015) Classification of Parkinson's Disease Genotypes in Drosophila Using Spatiotemporal Profiling of Vision. Nature Sci Rep 5:16933 Abstract and free full text
94. Klionsky DJ, Abdelmohsen K, Abe A, Abedin MJ, Abeliovich H, Acevedo Arozena A, ... Elliott, C.J.H. ... Zorzano A, & Zughaier SM. (2016) Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (3rd edition). Autophagy. 12:1-222. Abstract & Free Full text
95. Hindle, S. Hebbar, S. Schwudke, D. Elliott, C.J.H. & Sweeney, S.T., (2017) A Saposin deficiency model in Drosophila: lysosomal storage, progressive neurodegeneration, sensory physiological decline and defective calcium homeostasis. Neurobiol. Dis. 98:77-87 Abstract & Free Full text
96. Augustin, H., Adcott, J., Elliott, C.J.H. & Partridge, L. (2017) Complex Roles of Myoglianin in Regulating Adult Performance and Lifespan. Fly Abstract & Free Full text
97. Elliott, C.J.H. (2017) RE: Surmeier et al (2017) J. Neurosci. Online Abstract & Free Full text
98. Himmelberg, M.M., West, R.J.H., Elliott, C.J.H. & Wade, A.R. (2018) Abnormal visual gain control and excitotoxicity in early-onset Parkinson's disease Drosophila models. J. Neurophysiol. 119: 957-970 Abstract & Free Full text
99. Nippe, O.M., Wade, A.R., Elliott, C.J.H. and Chawla, S. (online early) Circadian Rhythms in Visual Responsiveness in the Behaviorally Arrhythmic Drosophila Clock Mutant ClkJrk. J. Biol. Rhythms Abstract and Free Full text
100. Cording, A.C., Shiaelis, N., Petridi, S., Middleton, C.A., Wilson, L. & Elliott, C.J.H. (2017) Targeted kinase inhibition relieves slowness and tremor in a Drosophila model of LRRK2 Parkinson's disease. npj Parkinson's disease. Abstract and Free Full text
101. Himmelberg, M.M., West, R.J.H., Wade, A.R. & Elliott, C.J.H. (2018) A Perceptive Plus in Parkinson's Disease. Movement Disorders 33:248 Abstract and Free Full text
102. Vilidaite, G., Norcia, A. M., West, R. J. H., Elliott, C. J. H., Pei, F., Wade, A. R. P. & Baker, D. H., (2018) Autism sensory dysfunction in an evolutionarily conserved system. Proc Roy Soc B: Biol Sci 285(1893): 20182255 Abstract and Free Full text
103. Schaffner, A., Li, X., Gomez-Llorente, Y., Leandrou, E., Memou, A., Clemente, N., Yao, C., Afsari, F., Zhi, L., Pan, N., Morohashi, K., Hua, X., Zhou, M-M., Wang, C., Zhang, H., Chen, S. G., Elliott, C.J., Rideout, H., Ubarretxena-Belandia, I. & Yue, Z (2019) Vitamin B12 modulates Parkinson's disease LRRK2 kinase activity through allosteric regulation and confers neuroprotection Cell Res. 29: 313-329 Abstract
104. Petridi, S., Middleton, C.A., Ugbode, C., Fellgett, A., Covill, L. and Elliott, C.J.H. (2020) In Vivo Visual Screen for Dopaminergic Rab <-> LRRK2-G2019S Interactions in Drosophila Discriminates Rab10 from Rab3. G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics (Bethesda). 10: 1903-1914 Abstract and Free Full text

Chris Elliott

The information on this server is provided for all, subject to the University's disclaimer