Anthelmintic activity of KSI-4088 against Caenorhabditis elegans

Anthelmintic resistance is a serious global problem because of the worldwide spread of resistant nematodes in animals and humans. This has triggered increasing investment in research for new anthelmintics. Over the past decade, Caenorhabditis elegans has become a popular model organism for parasitic nematode research, and many examples have been published to illustrate its use. In this study, we investigated the effect of KSI-4088 on the egg hatching, larval development, and migration of the nematode worm C. elegans compared with ivermectin and levamisole (well-known anthelmintic drugs). KSI-4088 demonstrated anthelmintic activity on all assays of C. elegans. The anthelmintic activity of KSI-4088 on egg hatching and larval development showed especially strong activity, but assays showed that ivermectin and levamisole had no effects on C. elegans. In addition, KSI-4088 was capable of producing a change in the timing of the development of the worms at the L1–L3 and L4 stage. Also, we demonstrate that C. elegans L3–4 are more sensitive than adults to KSI-4088 in assay of migration. Our results indicate that KSI-4088 is an active anthelmintic compound that should be further investigated with the aim of developing a potent drug against nematodes.