TY  - GEN
T1  - In vitro screening methods for parasites: the wMicroTracker & the WormAssay
AU  - Gunderson, Emma
AU  - Bulman, Christina
AU  - Luo, Mona
AU  - Sakanari, Judy
DO  - 10.17912/micropub.biology.000279
UR  - http://beta.micropublication.org/journals/biology/micropub-biology-000279/
AB  - The purpose of this study was to determine the utility of the wMicroTracker as a screening platform to assess the motility of various parasites. We tested three species of parasites: the adult and larval stages of the filarial nematode Brugia pahangi, the schistosomula stage of the trematode Schistosoma mansoni, and the epimastigote stage of the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. We optimized the assay for the number of parasites per well, plate type and media volume using the wMicroTracker and compared those readouts to readouts from the WormAssay (Marcellino et al. 2012) when possible. The WormAssay has been used in phenotypic drug screens to identify new compounds for the treatment of lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis and schistosomiasis (Storey et al. 2014; Bulman et al. 2015; Weeks et al. 2018; Tyagi et al. 2019). The original WormAssay was developed by Marcellino et al. 2012 and was subsequently modified to the “Worminator” by Storey et al. 2014 to observe smaller worms with an inverted microscope. wMicroTracker (InVivo Biosystems) protocols optimized for C. elegans adults (1 mm in length by 80 µm in width, highly motile) were used to optimize parasite assays based on the size and motility of each of the parasite species as compared to C. elegans adults.
PY  - 2020
JO  - microPublication Biology
ER  -