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research article

Automated longitudinal monitoring of in vivo protein aggregation in neurodegenerative disease C. elegans models

Cornaglia, Matteo  
•
Krishnamani, Gopalan
•
Mouchiroud, Laurent  
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2016
Molecular Neurodegeneration

Background: While many biological studies can be performed on cell-based systems, the investigation of molecular pathways related to complex human dysfunctions - e.g. neurodegenerative diseases - often requires long-term studies in animal models. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans represents one of the best model organisms for many of these tests and, therefore, versatile and automated systems for accurate time-resolved analyses on C. elegans are becoming highly desirable tools in the field. Results: We describe a new multi-functional platform for C. elegans analytical research, enabling automated worm isolation and culture, reversible worm immobilization and long-term high-resolution imaging, and this under active control of the main culture parameters, including temperature. We employ our platform for in vivo observation of biomolecules and automated analysis of protein aggregation in a C. elegans model for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Our device allows monitoring the growth rate and development of each worm, at single animal resolution, within a matrix of microfluidic chambers. We demonstrate the progression of individual protein aggregates, i.e. mutated human superoxide dismutase 1 - Yellow Fluorescent Protein (SOD1-YFP) fusion proteins in the body wall muscles, for each worm and over several days. Moreover, by combining reversible worm immobilization and on-chip high-resolution imaging, our method allows precisely localizing the expression of biomolecules within the worms' tissues, as well as monitoring the evolution of single aggregates over consecutive days at the sub-cellular level. We also show the suitability of our system for protein aggregation monitoring in a C. elegans Huntington disease (HD) model, and demonstrate the system's ability to study long-term doxycycline treatment-linked modification of protein aggregation profiles in the ALS model. Conclusion: Our microfluidic-based method allows analyzing in vivo the long-term dynamics of protein aggregation phenomena in C. elegans at unprecedented resolution. Pharmacological screenings on neurodegenerative disease C. elegans models may strongly benefit from this method in the near future, because of its full automation and high-throughput potential.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1186/s13024-016-0083-6
Web of Science ID

WOS:000369805300002

Author(s)
Cornaglia, Matteo  
Krishnamani, Gopalan
Mouchiroud, Laurent  
Sorrentino, Vincenzo  
Lehnert, Thomas  
Auwerx, Johan  
Gijs, Martin A. M.  
Date Issued

2016

Publisher

BioMed Central

Published in
Molecular Neurodegeneration
Volume

11

Start page

17

Subjects

Caenorhabditis elegans

•

Neurodegenerative disease

•

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)

•

Huntington disease (HD)

•

Doxycycline treatment

•

Protein aggregation

•

Longitudinal time-resolved analysis

•

High-resolution imaging

•

Worm immobilization

•

Temperature control

•

Microfluidics

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
LMIS2  
LISP  
Available on Infoscience
April 1, 2016
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/125353
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