title: Whole animal HTS of small molecules for antifungal compounds.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The high morbidity and mortality among patients with invasive fungal infections and the growing problem of fungal resistance have resulted in an urgent need for new antifungal agents.
  
  
  METHODS
  This review covers the importance of antifungal drug discovery with an emphasis on whole-animal high-throughput techniques. More specifically, the authors focus on Caenorhabditis elegans, as a substitute model host and discuss C. elegans as an alternative model host for the study of microbial pathogenesis and the identification of novel antifungal compounds.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There are significant advantages from using the substitute model host C. elegans in high-throughput drug discovery. The C. elegans-microbe model provides a whole animal system where host-pathogen interactions can be studied along with the evaluation of antimicrobial efficacy of compounds. This approach allows the study of compound characteristics, such as toxicity and solubility, during the initial screen and compounds discovered using C. elegans are affective in mammalian models.
authors.affiliation: a Division of Infectious Diseases , Rhode Island Hospital , Providence , RI , USA.|b Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University , Providence , RI , USA.
authors.forename: Maged
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Muhammed
authors.affiliation: c Department of Medicine , Boston Medical Center, Boston University , Boston , MA , USA.
authors.forename: Marios
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Arvanitis
authors.affiliation: a Division of Infectious Diseases , Rhode Island Hospital , Providence , RI , USA.|b Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University , Providence , RI , USA.
authors.forename: Eleftherios
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mylonakis
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000935:Antifungal Agents / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000382:microbiology; D015195:Drug Design; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000379:methods*; D025141:Drug Resistance, Fungal; D057166:High-Throughput Screening Assays / Q000379:methods*; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D006801:Humans; D009181:Mycoses / Q000188:drug therapy; D012995:Solubility
chemical_list: D000935:Antifungal Agents
keywords: Antifungal agents; Caenorhabditis elegans; Candida albicans; Drosophila melanogaster; drug discovery; high-throughput screen