Montali Aurora, Berini Francesca, Saviane Alessio, Cappellozza Silvia, Marinelli Flavia, Tettamanti Gianluca
Department of Biotechnology and Life Sciences, University of Insubria, 21100 Varese, Italy.
Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Research Centre for Agriculture and Environment (CREA-AA), 35143 Padova, Italy.
Insects. 2022 Aug 19;13(8):748. doi: 10.3390/insects13080748.
The increasing number of microorganisms that are resistant to antibiotics is prompting the development of new antimicrobial compounds and strategies to fight bacterial infections. The use of insects to screen and test new drugs is increasingly considered a promising tool to accelerate the discovery phase and limit the use of mammalians. In this study, we used for the first time the silkworm, , as an in vivo infection model to test the efficacy of three glycopeptide antibiotics (GPAs), against the nosocomial pathogen . To reproduce the human physiological temperature, the bacterial infection was performed at 37 °C and it was monitored over time by evaluating the survival rate of the larvae, as well the response of immunological markers (i.e., activity of hemocytes, activation of the prophenoloxidase system, and lysozyme activity). All the three GPAs tested (vancomycin, teicoplanin, and dalbavancin) were effective in curing infected larvae, significantly reducing their mortality and blocking the activation of the immune system. These results corroborate the use of this silkworm infection model for the in vivo studies of antimicrobial molecules active against staphylococci.
对抗生素产生耐药性的微生物数量不断增加，这促使人们研发新的抗菌化合物和对抗细菌感染的策略。利用昆虫来筛选和测试新药越来越被认为是一种有前景的工具，可加速发现阶段并限制哺乳动物的使用。在本研究中，我们首次使用家蚕作为体内感染模型，来测试三种糖肽抗生素（GPAs）对医院病原体的疗效。为了重现人体生理温度，在37°C下进行细菌感染，并通过评估幼虫的存活率以及免疫标志物的反应（即血细胞活性、前酚氧化酶系统的激活和溶菌酶活性）随时间进行监测。测试的所有三种GPAs（万古霉素、替考拉宁和达巴万星）都能有效治愈受感染的幼虫，显著降低其死亡率并阻止免疫系统的激活。这些结果证实了这种家蚕感染模型可用于对针对葡萄球菌的抗菌分子进行体内研究。
