Patent ID: 8809617

Claim:
A high-throughput method of determining whether a test compound may be therapeutically effective in treating a disorder of protein aggregation, comprising: (i) administering said test compound to a plurality of transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans whose genome comprises (a) a first transgene comprising a nucleic acid encoding a human protein that aggregates and a nucleic acid encoding a first fluorescent protein, operably linked to a Caenorhabditis elegans promoter, where the human protein that aggregates and the first fluorescent protein are expressed as a fusion protein and expression of said fusion protein results in a detectable accumulation of aggregates containing the fusion protein in the Caenorhabditis elegans and (b) a second transgene comprising a nucleic acid encoding a marker protein, operably linked to a Caenorhabditis elegans promoter, where the marker is expressed in a defined number of regions per worm; (ii) determining the difference in the amount of human protein that aggregates, in the presence of the test compound as compared to in the absence of the test compound, in the plurality of Caenorhabditis elegans by measuring the change in the level of fluorescence associated with the first fluorescent protein; (iii) calculating the number of Caenorhabditis elegans in said plurality by detecting the marker protein; (iv) determining, by dividing the results of step (ii) with the results of step (iii), the difference in the amount of human protein that aggregates, per worm, resulting from the administration of the test compound; wherein, if administration of the test compound results in a decrease in the amount of human protein that aggregates per worm, then the test compound is identified as a candidate compound that may be therapeutically effective in a disorder of protein aggregation.