Galleria mellonella as a Good Model to Study Acinetobacter baumannii Pathogenesis.

Ye Tao,Luminita Duma,Yannick Rossez

doi:10.3390/pathogens10111483

Abstract

The invertebrate model, Galleria mellonella, has been widely used to study host–pathogen interactions due to its cheapness, ease of handling, and similar mammalian innate immune system. G. mellonella larvae have been proven to be useful and a reliable model for analyzing pathogenesis mechanisms of multidrug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, an opportunistic pathogen difficult to kill. This review describes the detailed experimental design of G. mellonella/A. baumannii models, and provides a comprehensive comparison of various virulence factors and therapy strategies using the G. mellonella host. These investigations highlight the importance of this host–pathogen model for in vivo pathogen virulence studies. On the long term, further development of the G. mellonella/A. baumannii model will offer promising insights for clinical treatments of A. baumannii infection.

Highlights

Over the past decades, Acinetobacter baumannii has widely emerged as one of the major causes of highly invasive nosocomial pathogen infections in the health system [1]
A. baumannii is frequently associated with pneumonia, making small rodent lung infection models well suited for these bacteria [9]
Many studies have documented the pathogenic mechanisms of A. baumannii infection by using G. mellonella models, and here, we will focus on the virulence factor studies, the antibiotics resistance mechanisms, and we will discuss the A. baumannii’s persistence in a broad range of environments/hosts

Summary

Introduction

Acinetobacter baumannii has widely emerged as one of the major causes of highly invasive nosocomial pathogen infections in the health system [1]. These different studies have described virulence factors of A. baumannii (Table 1) and antimicrobial agents tested against A. baumannii (Table 2) in G. mellonella. Many studies have documented the pathogenic mechanisms of A. baumannii infection by using G. mellonella models, and here, we will focus on the virulence factor studies, the antibiotics resistance mechanisms, and we will discuss the A. baumannii’s persistence in a broad range of environments/hosts. Knock-out of the abaI gene, which controls the production of the QS signaling molecule, did not alter the lethality of G. mellonella larvae [40] The importance of this gene for A. baumannii virulence still needs further investigations. The effectiveness of antimicrobial agents is usually validated within 1–3 days, which saves precious time for the development of new agents [30,129]

Antibiotics

Further Strategies

Findings

Conclusions