Abstract
The immune system of insects and the innate immune response of mammals share many similarities and, as a result, insects may be used to assess the virulence of fungal pathogens and give results similar to those from mammals. Larvae of the greater wax moth Galleria mellonella are widely used in this capacity and also for assessing the toxicity and in vivo efficacy of antifungal drugs. G. mellonella larvae are easy to use, inexpensive to purchase and house, and have none of the legal/ethical restrictions that are associated with use of mammals. Larvae may be inoculated by intra-hemocoel injection or by force-feeding. Larvae can be used to assess the in vivo toxicity of antifungal drugs using a variety of cellular, proteomic, and molecular techniques. Larvae have also been used to identify the optimum combinations of antifungal drugs for use in the treatment of recalcitrant fungal infections in mammals. The introduction of foreign material into the hemocoel of larvae can induce an immune priming effect which may operate independently with the activity of the antifungal drug. Procedures to identify this effect and limit its action are required.
Highlights
Advantages of Galleria mellonella LarvaeThe insect immune response displays many structural and functional similarities to the innate immune response of mammals [1]
The immune system of insects and the innate immune response of mammals share many similarities and, as a result, insects may be used to assess the virulence of fungal pathogens and give results similar to those from mammals
Due to the presence of these conserved features, insects are widely used to assess the virulence of fungal pathogens and to determine the toxicity and in vivo efficacy of novel and conventional antifungal drugs and produce results comparable to those that may be obtained using mammals
Summary
The insect immune response displays many structural and functional similarities to the innate immune response of mammals [1]. Larvae are inexpensive to purchase, easy to use, are not subject to the ethical or lethal restrictions associated with mammalian testing, and can be employed for testing the toxicity and efficacy of a range of novel antifungal drugs These advantages are possible due to the similarities between the mammalian innate immune response and the insect immune system. A series of novel copper phenanthroline-phenazine cationic complexes which display promising chemotherapeutic potential decrease G. mellonella survival dependent upon enhanced nuclease activity, this is evident at the proteomic level with enrichment of metabolic and detoxification pathways These results indicate that larvae may be used to assess the tumoricidal activity of novel anti-neoplastic agents [50]
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