The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, has been one of the finest systems for decoding myriad puzzles across different domains of biology. Beyond addressing the fundamental problems, it has been used as a fantastic model organism for human disease research. Being an insect, Drosophila has a robust and advanced olfactory system that has been used many times as a model neuronal circuit to study fundamental questions in neurobiology. The circuit is well-explored at anatomical, physiological, and functional levels. It provides several advantages for the study of neurobiological disorders, such as spatiotemporally regulated misexpression or knockdown of disease proteins, genetic tractability, well-studied neuroanatomy, simple behavioural training paradigms, and quantifiable assays. Hence, Drosophila olfaction has been a favourite choice for the study of several neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, fragile X syndrome, etc. This review aims to discuss earlier progress and future scope in using the Drosophila olfactory system for modelling human neurological pathophysiology for conducting fundamental and applied research. A major goal of research in biological science is to alleviate human disease burden. Diverse experimental systems are required to address different aspects of disease aetiology. Drosophila is one of the finest in vivo systems; its olfactory system is arguably the most well-characterized circuit for modelling human neurological disorders. A vast amount of research has been conducted to decipher cellular, molecular, and even cognitive aspects of human disorders using the Drosophila olfactory system. This review aims at summarizing such research progress to date and critically analysing the suitability of this system for modelling more complex neurological conditions.

果蝇（Drosophila melanogaster）是破解不同生物学领域无数谜题的最佳系统之一。除了解决基本问题之外，它还被用作人类疾病研究的绝佳模式生物。作为一种昆虫，果蝇具有强大且先进的嗅觉系统，该系统已多次用作模型神经元回路来研究神经生物学的基本问题。该电路在解剖学、生理学和功能层面上都得到了充分的探索。它为神经生物学疾病的研究提供了多种优势，例如疾病蛋白的时空调节错误表达或敲除、遗传易处理性、经过充分研究的神经解剖学、简单的行为训练范例和可量化的测定。因此，果蝇嗅觉一直是研究多种神经退行性和神经发育障碍的首选，包括阿尔茨海默病、帕金森病、亨廷顿病、脆性X综合征等。本综述旨在讨论果蝇嗅觉系统的早期进展和未来范围用于模拟人类神经病理生理学以进行基础和应用研究。生物科学研究的一个主要目标是减轻人类疾病负担。需要多样化的实验系统来解决疾病病因学的不同方面。果蝇是最好的体内系统之一；它的嗅觉系统可以说是模拟人类神经系统疾病的最完善的回路。为了利用果蝇嗅觉系统破译人类疾病的细胞、分子甚至认知方面，已经进行了大量的研究。本综述旨在总结迄今为止的研究进展，并批判性地分析该系统对于建模更复杂的神经系统疾病的适用性。