Figure 3
Sertraline, paroxetine and chlorpromazine inhibit motility of adult T. muris. (A,B,C) Adult worms were cultured in different concentrations of sertraline, paroxetine or chlorpromazine for 24 h, after which their movements were videotaped and analyzed. Motility was normalized to the motility of medium-only, and medium with 1% DMSO, controls at 24 h. Data are shown as mean ± S.E.M.; N = 3 replicates; 3 worms per replicate. In every case, there was a significant effect of the drug on motility (p < 10−10; Likelihood Ratio test). (D) Superimposition of the curves in (A,B,C) for comparison. Calculated IC50 values (the drug concentration at which motility was reduced by 50%) at 24 h are shown. At 24 h, the IC50 value for chlorpromazine differed significantly from the values for sertraline (p < 10−10) and paroxetine (p < 10−5) whereas sertraline and paroxetine IC50s barely differed (p = 0.48; Likelihood Ratio test). (E) IC50 values for T. muris motility computed at four earlier time points (1, 4, and 12 h) in addition to the 24-h data in (A–D). The same worms were analyzed at each time point and IC50s were calculated from Hill plots (not shown). At 1 h post-treatment, the IC50 of sertraline differed significantly from the values for paroxetine (p = 0.006) and chlorpromazine (p = 0.04), whereas the IC50s of paroxetine and chlorpromazine did not differ significantly (p = 0.26; Likelihood Ratio test).
