RESUMO
Identifying effective drugs for focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) treatment holds significant importance. Our high-content drug screening on zebrafish larvae relies on nitroreductase/metronidazole (NTR/MTZ)-induced podocyte ablation to generate FSGS-like injury. A crucial factor for successful drug screenings is minimizing variability in injury induction. For this, we introduce Nifurpirinol (NFP) as a more reliable prodrug for targeted podocyte depletion. NFP showed a 2.3-fold increase in efficiency at concentrations 1600-fold lower compared to MTZ-mediated injury induction. Integration into the screening workflow validated its suitability for the high-content drug screening. The presence of crucial FSGS hallmarks such as podocyte foot process effacement, proteinuria, and activation of parietal epithelial cells, were found. After the isolation of the glomeruli from the larvae, we identified essential pathways by proteomic analysis. This study shows that NFP serves as a highly effective prodrug to induce the FSGS-like disease in zebrafish larvae and is well-suited for a high-content drug screening to identify new candidates for the treatment of FSGS.