The Use of Insect Organisms to Study Human Pathogenic Fungi
A special issue of Pathogens (ISSN 2076-0817). This special issue belongs to the section "Fungal Pathogens".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2023) | Viewed by 2644
Special Issue Editors
Interests: insect immunity; antimicrobial peptides; Galleria mellonella; host–pathogen interaction
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Pathogenic fungi pose a threat to human health and life, especially immunocompromised patients, including those after transplants and cancer patients. Therefore, a number of studies are carried out to understand host–fungal pathogen interactions, elucidate the course of infection, and determine the virulence factors of fungi. The search for novel antifungal compounds is also an important area. Often, in vitro tests are insufficient as they do not coincide with the results obtained in vivo. Due to high costs and logistical and ethical problems, research using small mammals, such as mice and rats, is limited.
Therefore, insects such as Galleria mellonella (Lepidoptera), Drosophila melanogaster (Diptera), Bombyx mori (Lepidoptera), or the mosquito Culex quinquefasciatus (Diptera) have been widely used as alternative non-mammalian models for the study of fungal virulence and pathogenesis. Importantly, G. mellonella caterpillars can be kept at 37 ºC, which is physiological for the human body.
Research with the use of insect model organisms allows observing the development of infection in a living organism and determining the lethal doses of a given pathogen. Moreover, it enables testing the efficacy of conventional and novel antifungal drugs and determination of their dosage. It also provides information on the safety profile of novel antimycotics.
We would like to invite colleagues who study insect host–fungal pathogen interactions and virulence factors of fungi that are pathogenic for humans, as well as testing new antimycotics on insect model organisms, to submit their manuscripts for this Special Issue in the form of original research and reviews.
Dr. Sylwia Stączek
Dr. Agnieszka Zdybicka-Barabas
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- insect model organism
- antimycotics
- fungal infections
- animal model
- Galleria mellonella
- fungal pathogens
- innate immunity
- immune response
- antimicrobial peptides
- antifungal peptides
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