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C. elegans as a Disease Model: Molecular Perspectives
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C. elegans as a Disease Model: Molecular Perspectives

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Pathology, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 July 2024 | Viewed by 4380

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Krisztina Takács-Vellai

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biological Anthropology, Institute of Biology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
Interests: developmental genetics; cell death; C. elegans; tumor genetics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has been used for 50 years as a genetic model organism. “The worm” is one of the well-known non-mammalian model systems, having contributed to human disease gene discovery due to its ease-of-use and excellent genetic, genomic and cell biology tools.

As 40–60% of genes in C. elegans have orthologs or strong homologs in mammals, and several biological mechanisms are also conserved in worms and mammals, the biological function of numerous disease-related genes have been revealed in this organism. C. elegans has been used to investigate the genetic background of many biological processes, such as ageing or innate immunity.

In the era of genome editing, CRISPR can be used to mutate the worm homologs of disease-related genes, generating the mutation of interest. In addition, disease-related genes in C. elegans can be humanized by replacing the worm gene with its human ortholog, with the “humanized worm” able to be the target of further screens or assays.

C. elegans models have been successfully generated for several types of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s or Huntington’s disease. The nematode is also considered today as an emerging model to investigate different aspects of cancer.

Dr. Krisztina Takács-Vellai
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Caenorhabditis elegans
  • model organism
  • disease model
  • neurodegenerative diseases
  • cancer model
  • ageing

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 2673 KiB  
Article
Nicotine Motivated Behavior in C. elegans
by Chinnu Salim, Enkhzul Batsaikhan, Ann Ke Kan, Hao Chen and Changhoon Jee
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024, 25(3), 1634; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms25031634 - 29 Jan 2024
Viewed by 971
Abstract
To maximize the advantages offered by Caenorhabditis elegans as a high-throughput (HTP) model for nicotine dependence studies, utilizing its well-defined neuroconnectome as a robust platform, and to unravel the genetic basis of nicotine-motivated behaviors, we established the nicotine conditioned cue preference (CCP) paradigm. [...] Read more.
To maximize the advantages offered by Caenorhabditis elegans as a high-throughput (HTP) model for nicotine dependence studies, utilizing its well-defined neuroconnectome as a robust platform, and to unravel the genetic basis of nicotine-motivated behaviors, we established the nicotine conditioned cue preference (CCP) paradigm. Nicotine CCP enables the assessment of nicotine preference and seeking, revealing a parallel to fundamental aspects of nicotine-dependent behaviors observed in mammals. We demonstrated that nicotine-elicited cue preference in worms is mediated by nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and requires dopamine for CCP development. Subsequently, we pinpointed nAChR subunits associated with nicotine preference and validated human GWAS candidates linked to nicotine dependence involved in nAChRs. Functional validation involves assessing the loss-of-function strain of the CACNA2D3 ortholog and the knock-out (KO) strain of the CACNA2D2 ortholog, closely related to CACNA2D3 and sharing human smoking phenotypes. Our orthogonal approach substantiates the functional conservation of the α2δ subunit of the calcium channel in nicotine-motivated behavior. Nicotine CCP in C. elegans serves as a potent affirmation of the cross-species functional relevance of GWAS candidate genes involved in nicotine seeking associated with tobacco abuse, providing a streamlined yet comprehensive system for investigating intricate behavioral paradigms within a simplified and reliable framework. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue C. elegans as a Disease Model: Molecular Perspectives)
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Review

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14 pages, 1177 KiB  
Review
Caenorhabditis elegans as a Screening Model for Probiotics with Properties against Metabolic Syndrome
by Ignacio Goyache, Deyan Yavorov-Dayliev, Fermín I. Milagro and Paula Aranaz
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024, 25(2), 1321; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms25021321 - 22 Jan 2024
Viewed by 1614
Abstract
There is a growing need to develop new approaches to prevent and treat diseases related to metabolic syndromes, including obesity or type 2 diabetes, that focus on the different factors involved in the pathogenesis of these diseases. Due to the role of gut [...] Read more.
There is a growing need to develop new approaches to prevent and treat diseases related to metabolic syndromes, including obesity or type 2 diabetes, that focus on the different factors involved in the pathogenesis of these diseases. Due to the role of gut microbiota in the regulation of glucose and insulin homeostasis, probiotics with beneficial properties have emerged as an alternative therapeutic tool to ameliorate metabolic diseases-related disturbances, including fat excess or inflammation. In the last few years, different strains of bacteria, mainly lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and species from the genus Bifidobacterium, have emerged as potential probiotics due to their anti-obesogenic and/or anti-diabetic properties. However, in vivo studies are needed to demonstrate the mechanisms involved in these probiotic features. In this context, Caenorhabditis elegans has emerged as a very powerful simple in vivo model to study the physiological and molecular effects of probiotics with potential applications regarding the different pathologies of metabolic syndrome. This review aims to summarize the main studies describing anti-obesogenic, anti-diabetic, or anti-inflammatory properties of probiotics using C. elegans as an in vivo research model, as well as providing a description of the molecular mechanisms involved in these activities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue C. elegans as a Disease Model: Molecular Perspectives)
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16 pages, 856 KiB  
Review
Towards Understanding Neurodegenerative Diseases: Insights from Caenorhabditis elegans
by Yingjie Wu, Yining Chen, Xiaochun Yu, Minxing Zhang and Zhaoyu Li
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024, 25(1), 443; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms25010443 - 28 Dec 2023
Viewed by 1351
Abstract
The elevated occurrence of debilitating neurodegenerative disorders, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Huntington’s disease (HD), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Machado–Joseph disease (MJD), demands urgent disease-modifying therapeutics. Owing to the evolutionarily conserved molecular signalling pathways with mammalian species and facile [...] Read more.
The elevated occurrence of debilitating neurodegenerative disorders, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Huntington’s disease (HD), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Machado–Joseph disease (MJD), demands urgent disease-modifying therapeutics. Owing to the evolutionarily conserved molecular signalling pathways with mammalian species and facile genetic manipulation, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) emerges as a powerful and manipulative model system for mechanistic insights into neurodegenerative diseases. Herein, we review several representative C. elegans models established for five common neurodegenerative diseases, which closely simulate disease phenotypes specifically in the gain-of-function aspect. We exemplify applications of high-throughput genetic and drug screenings to illustrate the potential of C. elegans to probe novel therapeutic targets. This review highlights the utility of C. elegans as a comprehensive and versatile platform for the dissection of neurodegenerative diseases at the molecular level. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue C. elegans as a Disease Model: Molecular Perspectives)
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Displaying articles 1-3

Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

1. Review: C. elegans as an infection model, with an emphasis on Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a multireststant opportunistic human pathogen

Author: Csaba Sőti

2. Article: the role of the SDH complex in C. elegans (mutations in the SDH subunits cause rare neuroendocrine tumors in human)
Author: Krisztina Takacs-Vellai

3. Article: host-microbiome interaction in dependency of the intestinal intermediate filament network
Author: Florian Geisler

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