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Updated: May 18, 2026

Using Caenorhabditis elegans to Screen for Tissue-Specific Chaperone Interactions
Published on: June 7, 2020
Functional screening of pharmacological chaperones via restoration of enzyme activity upon denaturation
Meera Shanmuganathan1, Philip Britz-McKibbin
1Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4M1.
Abstract:
Pharmacological chaperones (PCs) are small molecules that stabilize and promote protein folding. Enzyme inhibition is widely used for PC selection; however, it does not accurately reflect chaperone activity. We introduce a functional assay for characterization of PCs based on their capacity to restore enzyme activity that is abolished upon chemical denaturation. Dose-dependent activity curves were performed as a function of urea to assess the chaperone potency of various ligands to β-glucocerebrosidase as a model system. Restoration of enzyme activity upon denaturation allows direct screening of PCs for treatment of genetic disorders associated with protein deficiency, such as Gaucher disease.

