The transcriptomic response to albendazole (ABZ), mebendazole (MBZ), thiabendazole (TBZ), oxfendazole (OxBZ) and fenbendazole (FBZ) in the C. elegans strain CB3474 ben-1(e1880)III

We have undertaken a detailed analysis of the biotransformation of five of the most therapeutically important benzimidazole anthelmintics - albendazole (ABZ), mebendazole (MBZ), thiabendazole (TBZ), oxfendazole (OxBZ) and fenbendazole (FBZ) - in Caenorhabditis elegans. As a step to identifying nematode enzymes potentially responsible for benzimidazole biotransformation, we characterised the transcriptomic response to each of the benzimidazole drugs using the C. elegans strain CB3474 ben-1(e1880)III in order to minimize general phenotypic and stress responses to the drug. In the case of albendazole (ABZ), mebendazole (MBZ), thiabendazole (TBZ), and oxfendazole (OxBZ) - the shared transcriptomic response was dominated by the up- regulation classical xenobiotic response genes. Three biological replicates of approximately 20,000 larvae C. elegans CB3474 ben-1(e1880)III exposed to 1.13mM of either albendazole (Sigma Cat# A4673), mebendazole (Sigma Cat# M2523), thiabendazole (Sigma Cat#T8904), oxfendazole (Sigma Cat#34176), fenbendazole (Sigma Cat# F5396) dissolved in DMSO as well as a DMSO negative control.