Adding more content to screening: reactivation of FOXO as a therapeutic strategy.

Abstract

The discovery of novel targets that can be pharmacologically exploited to lead to a better disease outcome has long been an aim of biomedical research. At present, the technology and robotisation available have pushed the search for novel molecules to a high-throughput screening (HTS) context, making it possible to screen several hundreds of compounds or genes in a single day. High-content screenings (HCS) have added a refined complexity to the screening processes, as the information drawn from an image- based assay is more complete than the monoparametric readouts obtained in classical HTS assays. Here, we review the development of HCS platforms to identify molecules influencing FOXO nuclear relocation and activation as pharmacological targets, their applicability and the future directions of the screening field.