Getting small molecules through the cuticle.

Model Organism: Worms Methods & Reagents
1

Hello everyone,

I want to expose adult worms to inhibitors of actin polymerization (latrunculin / cytochahalin D), and I would greatly appreciate any suggestions on how to bypass the cuticle (partial digestion? nicking the animal?).

Thank you in advance,
Grigoris

2

Hi Grigoris,
you should try to incubate your worms in liquid medium with the drug of interest and mild detergents like Triton. See Semple et al 2010 (Nature methods) and Rogalski 1990 (Genetics). These authors use mild detergents to increase drug accessibility to cells. I don’t know exactly if detergents increase the passage through the cuticle, but you may want to try their protocols.
I hope this would help.
Good luck with your experiments,
Rosina

3

Thank you very much Rosina; this sounds very promising!
Many thanks and best of luck with your experiments!
Grigoris

4

Did using triton X work or did it turn out too harsh for the worms?