Abstract
The threat burden from pathogenic fungi is universal and increasing with alarming high mortality and morbidity rates from invasive fungal infections. Understanding the virulence factors of these fungi, screening effective antifungal agents and exploring appropriate treatment approaches in in vivo modeling organisms are vital research projects for controlling mycoses. Caenorhabditis elegans has been proven to be a valuable tool in studies of most clinically relevant dimorphic fungi, helping to identify a number of virulence factors and immune-regulators and screen effective antifungal agents without cytotoxic effects. However, little has been achieved and reported with regard to pathogenic filamentous fungi (molds) in the nematode model. In this review, we have summarized the enormous breakthrough of applying a C. elegans infection model for dimorphic fungi studies and the very few reports for filamentous fungi. We have also identified and discussed the challenges in C. elegans-mold modeling applications as well as the possible approaches to conquer these challenges from our practical knowledge in C. elegans-Aspergillus fumigatus model.
Highlights
Pathogenic fungi pose an enormous global threat to humanity, leading to millions of deaths and substantial financial losses annually (Fisher et al, 2012; Rhodes, 2019)
perillyl worms alcohol (PA) was not toxic to C. elegans at 350 μg/ml after 7 days of incubation SG significantly (p < 0.0001) protected and prolonged the lifespan of infected C. elegans compared with the 1% DMSO control, inhibiting the hyphal filamentation of C. albicans in infected worms by Day 6 of postinfection
THP did not show any toxicity at 1.6 mg/ml compared with untreated control for 6 days of treatment Thymol significantly (p < 0.01) increased the survival rate and mean lifespan (10.5 ± 0.4 days) of infected C. elegans compared with untreated infected worms (6.1 ± 0.5 days) within 10 days postinfection
Summary
Pathogenic fungi pose an enormous global threat to humanity, leading to millions of deaths and substantial financial losses annually (Fisher et al, 2012; Rhodes, 2019). Van had no cytotoxic effects on nematodes by Day 4 of treatment FC significantly (p < 0.001) enhanced the survival of infected worms at 16 μg/ml giving the highest survival rate compared with the untreated control by Day 6.
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