Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32420988›Full record

ArticleJournal of visualized experiments : JoVE2020

Determination of Chemical Inhibitor Efficiency against Intracellular Toxoplasma Gondii Growth Using a Luciferase-Based Growth Assay.

Melanie Key, Amy Bergmann, Chiara Micchelli, L Brock Thornton, Sophie Millard, Zhicheng Dou

Open access · greenAbstract readVideo-Audio Media
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
9citing papers in PubMed
1.0field-weighted citation impact, top 30% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

9 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. A two-membrane gateway for monocarboxylates couples host glycolysis tobioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026
    Article
  2. Oxadiargyl analogs as potent inhibitors ofRSC medicinal chemistry · 2026
    Article
  3. Article
  4. mSphere · 2024
    Article
  5. Article
  6. bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023
    Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Melanie Key *Department of Biological Sciences, Clemson University; Eukaryotic Pathogens Innovation Center, Clemson University.
Amy Bergmann *Department of Biological Sciences, Clemson University; Eukaryotic Pathogens Innovation Center, Clemson University.
Chiara MicchelliDepartment of Biological Sciences, Clemson University; Eukaryotic Pathogens Innovation Center, Clemson University.
L Brock ThorntonDepartment of Biological Sciences, Clemson University; Eukaryotic Pathogens Innovation Center, Clemson University.
Sophie MillardDepartment of Biological Sciences, Clemson University; Eukaryotic Pathogens Innovation Center, Clemson University.
Zhicheng DouDepartment of Biological Sciences, Clemson University; Eukaryotic Pathogens Innovation Center, Clemson University; zdou@clemson.edu.
Clemson University · US

Funding

The role of acetate fermentation in Entamoeba histolytica growth and infectionP20GM109094 · NIGMS · CLEMSON UNIVERSITY · PI MORRIS, MEREDITH T · 2016 to 2020
$10.4M
Regulation of the physiology and function of the digestive vacuole in Toxoplasma gondiiR01AI143707 · NIAID · CLEMSON UNIVERSITY · PI DOU, ZHICHENG · 2020 to 2024
$1.8M
NIAID NIH HHS R01 AI143707NIGMS NIH HHS P20 GM109094
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan pathogen that widely affects the human population. The current antibiotics used for treating clinical toxoplasmosis are limited. In addition, they exhibit adverse side effects in certain groups of people. Therefore, discovery of novel therapeutics for clinical toxoplasmosis is imperative. The first step of novel antibiotic development is to identify chemical compounds showing high efficacy in inhibition of parasite growth using a high throughput screening strategy. As an obligate intracellular pathogen, Toxoplasma can only replicate within host cells, which prohibits the use of optical absorbance measurements as a quick indicator of growth. Presented here is a detailed protocol for a luciferase-based growth assay. As an example, this method is used to calculate the doubling time of wild-type Toxoplasma parasites and measure the efficacy of morpholinurea-leucyl-homophenyl-vinyl sulfone phenyl (LHVS, a cysteine protease-targeting compound) regarding inhibition of parasite intracellular growth. Also described, is a CRISPR-Cas9-based gene deletion protocol in Toxoplasma using 50 bp homologous regions for homology-dependent recombination (HDR). By quantifying the inhibition efficacies of LHVS in wild-type and TgCPL (Toxoplasma cathepsin L-like protease)-deficient parasites, it is shown that LHVS inhibits wild-type parasite growth more efficiently than Δcpl growth, suggesting that TgCPL is a target that LHVS binds to in Toxoplasma. The high sensitivity and easy operation of this luciferase-based growth assay make it suitable for monitoring Toxoplasma proliferation and evaluating drug efficacy in a high throughput manner.

Indexed as

Biological AssayAnimalsAntiparasitic AgentsLuciferasesProtozoan ProteinsToxoplasmaToxoplasmosisAntiparasitic AgentsLuciferasesProtozoan Proteins

Identifiers

PMID32420988
PMCPMC7599073
OpenAlexW3021845878

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.