Research Group Microbial Immunology, Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology-Hans Knöll Institute (HKI), Jena, Germany.
Institute of Microbiology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany.
Methods Mol Biol. 2023;2667:181-196. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-3199-7_14.
Animal models have been crucial in understanding the pathogenesis and developing novel therapeutic approaches for fungal infections in general. This is especially true for mucormycosis, which has a low incidence but is often fatal or debilitating. Mucormycoses are caused by different species, via different routes of infections, and in patients differing in their underlying diseases and risk factors. Consequently, clinically relevant animal models use different types of immunosuppression and infection routes.This chapter describes how to induce different types of immunosuppression (high dose corticosteroids and induction of leukopenia, respectively) or diabetic ketoacidosis as underlying risk factors for mucormycosis. Furthermore, it provides details on how to perform intranasal application to establish pulmonary infection. Finally, some clinical parameters that can be used for developing scoring systems and define humane endpoints in mice are discussed.
动物模型在理解真菌病发病机制和开发新型治疗方法方面一直发挥着关键作用。对于毛霉菌病尤其如此，毛霉菌病发病率较低，但往往致命或使人虚弱。毛霉菌病由不同的物种引起，通过不同的感染途径，在基础疾病和危险因素不同的患者中发生。因此，临床相关的动物模型使用不同类型的免疫抑制和感染途径。本章介绍如何诱导不同类型的免疫抑制（高剂量皮质类固醇和诱导白细胞减少症）或糖尿病酮症酸中毒作为毛霉菌病的潜在危险因素。此外，还详细介绍了如何进行鼻腔内应用以建立肺部感染。最后，讨论了一些可用于开发评分系统和定义小鼠人性化终点的临床参数。
