A whole animal Caenorhabditis elegans high content screening strategy as a surrogate model for drug discovery against worms of medical and veterinary importance

• Grant number: 15/20626-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: March 01, 2016
• End date: August 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Parasitology - Helminthology of Parasites
• Principal Investigator: Lucio Holanda Gondim de Freitas Junior
• Grantee: Giovana Aparecida de Souza Cintra
• Host Institution: Instituto Butantan. Secretaria da Saúde (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Two billion people are estimated to be affected by parasitic infectious disease according to the World Health Organization. The most serious concern for the future is the emergence of resistance to all anthelmintic currently used to treat infection by parasitic worms. Caenorhabditis elegans is a free-living nematode naturally found in soil that has become a model organism for investigation of nematode parasites. The C. elegans was instrumental in defining the mode of action for most of anthelmintic drugs also contribute to the understanding of resistance mechanisms. The high availability, ease of culture and rapid proliferation of C. elegans make it a useful compound screening system with potential anthelmintic activity.None of the current techniques available for measuring the viability of C. elegans is a rapid and feasible way to screen compounds on a large scale, so that there is a need for a biological assay for high throughput screening of potential nematicides.The main objective of this project is the development and standardization of an assay for in vivo screening of high content for the discovery of anthelmintic drugs, based on the C. elegans model. The establishment of a pipeline with robustness, high sensitivity, low variability and reliability, allow screening of thousands of compounds in a continuous manner. (AU)