Chemical and Genetic Validation of the Statin Drug Target to Treat the Helminth Disease, Schistosomiasis
Figure 1
Concentration-dependent killing of S. mansoni somules by six commercial statins as measured manually and using a machine learning-based automated algorithm.
Newly transformed somules were incubated out to four days in the presence of the concentrations of statins indicated. The percentage of degenerate worms was measured both manually (dashed curves) and using a new automated algorithm (solid curves) as described in the text. Points represent means ± S.D. across two independent experiments each in duplicate. ED50 values are inserted above the curves. Mevalonate (100 µM) prevented worm-kill by 1 µM simvastatin and is indicated by the single square point. Image panels display somules cultured for four days; (A) DMSO control, (B) 1 µM simvastatin (indicating the rounded and darkened (degenerate) response) and (C) 1 µM simvastatin plus 100 µM mevalonate. Bar in Panel A = 100 µm.