Gao Shan, Chen Weiyang, Zeng Yingxin, Jing Haiming, Zhang Nan, Flavel Matthew, Jois Markandeya, Han Jing-Dong J, Xian Bo, Li Guojun
Beijing Key Laboratory of Diagnostic and Traceability Technologies for Food Poisoning, Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control/Beijing Center of Preventive Medicine Research, Beijing, 100013, China.
Beijing Key Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology, School of Public Health, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100069, China.
BMC Pharmacol Toxicol. 2018 Apr 18;19(1):18. doi: 10.1186/s40360-018-0208-3.
Traditional toxicological studies have relied heavily on various animal models to understand the effect of various compounds in a biological context. Considering the great cost, complexity and time involved in experiments using higher order organisms. Researchers have been exploring alternative models that avoid these disadvantages. One example of such a model is the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. There are some advantages of C. elegans, such as small size, short life cycle, well defined genome, ease of maintenance and efficient reproduction.
As these benefits allow large scale studies to be initiated with relative ease, the problem of how to efficiently capture, organize and analyze the resulting large volumes of data must be addressed. We have developed a new method for quantitative screening of chemicals using C. elegans. 33 features were identified for each chemical treatment.
The compounds with different toxicities were shown to alter the phenotypes of C. elegans in distinct and detectable patterns. We found that phenotypic profiling revealed conserved functions to classify and predict the toxicity of different chemicals.
Our results demonstrate the power of phenotypic profiling in C. elegans under different chemical environments.
传统毒理学研究严重依赖各种动物模型来了解各种化合物在生物环境中的作用。考虑到使用高等生物进行实验所涉及的巨大成本、复杂性和时间。研究人员一直在探索避免这些缺点的替代模型。这种模型的一个例子是线虫秀丽隐杆线虫。秀丽隐杆线虫有一些优点，如体型小、生命周期短、基因组明确、易于饲养和高效繁殖。
由于这些优点使得大规模研究能够相对轻松地开展，因此必须解决如何有效捕获、组织和分析由此产生的大量数据的问题。我们开发了一种使用秀丽隐杆线虫进行化学物质定量筛选的新方法。针对每种化学处理确定了33个特征。
具有不同毒性的化合物显示出以独特且可检测的模式改变秀丽隐杆线虫的表型。我们发现表型分析揭示了保守功能，可用于分类和预测不同化学物质的毒性。
我们的结果证明了在不同化学环境下秀丽隐杆线虫表型分析的作用。
