Figure 1.

Summary of tauopathy drug-screening paradigm with worms. Step 1. In the primary drug screen by McCormick et al. (5), a C. elegans model of tauopathy was exposed to different drugs in a multiwell plate format for 1 week. More than 1000 drugs were assessed in different batches with untreated controls. Most drugs had no effects on tauopathy-induced immobility (e.g., Drug A), whereas a few drugs rescued the defect (e.g., Drug B). Step 2. The dose responses were profiled for promising compounds within the second week. Step 3. An in vitro tauopathy model was used to test whether promising compounds altered biochemical endpoints such as levels of soluble and insoluble tau protein in human cells. Step 4. These promising compounds may be further subjected to in vivo testing in classical rodent models of tauopathy.