Infectious Disease Unit, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Immunol Invest. 2011;40(7-8):676-91. doi: 10.3109/08820139.2011.587218.
The emergence over the past two decades of invasive mycoses as a significant problem in immunocompromised patients underscores the importance of deciphering innate immunity against filamentous fungi. However, the complexity and cost of traditionally used mammalian model hosts presents a bottleneck that has limited the rate of advances in this field. In contrast, invertebrate model hosts have several important advantages, including simple immune systems, genetic tractability, and amenity to high-throughput experiments. The application of these models to studies of host-pathogen interactions is contingent on two tenets: (1) host innate defenses are preserved across widely disparate taxa, and (2) similar fungal virulence factors are operative in insects and in mammals. Validation of these principles paved the way for the use of invertebrates as facile models for studying invasive mould infections. These studies have helped shape our understanding of human pattern recognition receptors, phagocytic cell function and antimicrobial proteins, and their roles in host defense against filamentous fungi.
在过去的二十年中，侵袭性真菌感染成为免疫功能低下患者的一个重大问题，这凸显了解析固有免疫对抗丝状真菌的重要性。然而，传统上使用的哺乳动物模型宿主的复杂性和成本成为了一个瓶颈，限制了该领域的进展速度。相比之下，无脊椎动物模型宿主具有几个重要的优势，包括简单的免疫系统、遗传可操作性和适用于高通量实验。这些模型在宿主-病原体相互作用研究中的应用取决于两个原则：（1）宿主固有防御在广泛不同的类群中得以保留；（2）相似的真菌毒力因子在昆虫和哺乳动物中起作用。这些原则的验证为利用无脊椎动物作为研究侵袭性霉菌感染的简单模型铺平了道路。这些研究有助于我们理解人类模式识别受体、吞噬细胞功能和抗菌蛋白，以及它们在宿主防御丝状真菌中的作用。
