NAD+ and PPAR-modifying drugs in a C. elegans model of respiratory chain complex I deficiency

The gas-1(fc21) mutation affects the 49 kD subunit of complex I, decreasing the rate of complex I-dependent oxidative phosphorylation. This is a model for human mitochondrial respiratory chain disease. NAD+ and PPAR-modifying drugs may confer benefits with respect to lifespan in these short-lived mutant worms. Analysis of gas-1(fc21) electron transport chain complex I mutants treated either starting in development or in young adulthood only with nicotinic acid (1 mM), resveratrol (50 microM), rosiglitazone (5 mM) or fenofibrate (14 microM) is presented. The goal is to detect transcriptional changes in clusters of genes using gene set enrichment analysis to explain treament effects in these mutant worms. Four biological replicates were performed for each treatment condition (nicotinic acid, resveratrol, rosiglitazone, and fenofibrate) for each drug beginning either in development or in young adulthood for gas-1 mutant worms, i.e., 8 treated samples in total. At most one outlier was excluded from each analysis. Untreated N2 and gas-1 in each of the control solvents (S-basal, for nicotinic acid, and 1% DMSO, for resveratrol, rosiglitazone, and fenofibrate) were also analyzed; at least 3 replicates of each were included. These were used as sources of total RNA, each for hybridization to a single Affymetrix whole-genome microarray. Analysis was performed to reveal transcriptional changes related to mutantion and/or drug treatment effects.