Calcineurin-Dependent Homeostatic Response of C. elegans Muscle Cells upon Prolonged Activation of Acetylcholine Receptors.

ABSTRACT: Pharmacological adaptation is a common phenomenon observed during prolonged drug exposure and often leads to drug resistance. Understanding the cellular events involved in adaptation could provide new strategies to circumvent this resistance issue. We used the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to analyze the adaptation to levamisole, an ionotropic acetylcholine receptor agonist, used for decades to treat nematode parasitic infections. Genetic screens in C. elegans identified "adapting mutants" that initially paralyze upon exposure to levamisole as the wild type (WT), but recover locomotion after a few hours whereas WT remain paralyzed. Here, we show that levamisole induces a sustained increase in cytosolic calcium concentration in the muscle cells of adapting mutants, lasting s

SUBMITTER: Florin F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10486475 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature