Kay Sammy, Edwards Joseph, Brown Joseph, Dixon Ronald
School of Life Sciences, Joseph Banks Laboratories, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, United Kingdom.
Arden Biotechnology, Lincoln, United Kingdom.
Front Microbiol. 2019 Jul 3;10:1281. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2019.01281. eCollection 2019.
Research progress into mechanisms of the anaerobe and associated diseases has been frustrated by the lack of reliable infection models. Wax moth larvae () have emerged as a viable alternative to other models of infection since they are economic, survive at 37°C and require no specialist equipment. This study aims to establish to what extent larvae can be used to study the virulence of strains and its suitability for studying novel treatment strategies by an improved time-lapse approach to data collection. Mortality and morbidity rates of larvae challenged with 10 CFU of isolates from various sources were observed over 72 h and dose response data obtained. Phenoloxidase enzyme activity was investigated as a marker for immune response and tissue burden assessed by histopathological techniques. Results demonstrate that is pathogenic toward although potency varies dramatically between isolates and the reference strain ATCC 13124 was shown to be avirulent. Infection with strains activated the melanisation pathway resulting in melanin deposition but no increase in enzyme activity was observed. Efficacy of antibiotic therapy (penicillin G, bacitracin, neomycin, and tetracycline) administered parenterally to some extent correlates with that of analysis. The findings suggest might be a useful model of infection and convenient as a pre-screening assay for virulence of strains or as a simple, cheap and rapid assay in the first stage development of novel therapeutics against anaerobes.
-Potential novel model for the study of infection.-Novel time-lapse approach to data collection.-First report of the pathogenicity of toward .-First report of the efficacy of antibiotic therapy in response to infection in .
由于缺乏可靠的感染模型，厌氧菌及其相关疾病机制的研究进展受阻。蜡螟幼虫已成为其他感染模型的可行替代方案，因为它们经济实惠，能在37°C存活，且无需专业设备。本研究旨在确定蜡螟幼虫在何种程度上可用于研究菌株的毒力，以及通过改进的延时数据收集方法来研究新型治疗策略的适用性。在72小时内观察用来自不同来源的10 CFU分离株攻击的幼虫的死亡率和发病率，并获得剂量反应数据。研究酚氧化酶活性作为免疫反应的标志物，并通过组织病理学技术评估组织负荷。结果表明，尽管不同分离株的效力差异很大，但对蜡螟幼虫具有致病性，而参考菌株ATCC 13124显示无毒力。感染菌株激活了黑化途径，导致黑色素沉积，但未观察到酶活性增加。肌肉注射抗生素疗法（青霉素G、杆菌肽、新霉素和四环素）的疗效在一定程度上与分析结果相关。研究结果表明，蜡螟幼虫可能是一种有用的感染模型，可方便地作为菌株毒力的预筛选试验，或作为针对厌氧菌的新型治疗药物第一阶段开发中的简单、廉价且快速的试验。
