A novel biosafety level 2 compliant tuberculosis infection model using a ΔleuDΔpanCD double auxotroph of Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv and Galleria mellonella
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Supporting information
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Mammalian infection models have contributed significantly to our understanding of the host-mycobacterial interaction, revealing potential mechanisms and targets for novel antimycobacterial therapeutics. However, the use of conventional mammalian models such as mice, are typically expensive, high maintenance, require specialised animal housing, and are ethically regulated. Furthermore, research using Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), is inherently difficult as work needs to be carried out at biosafety level 3 (BSL3). The insect larvae of Galleria mellonella (greater wax moth), have become increasingly popular as an infection model, and we previously demonstrated its potential as a mycobacterial infection model using Mycobacterium bovis BCG. Here we present a novel BSL2 complaint MTB infection model using G. mellonella in combination with a bioluminescent ΔleuDΔpanCD double auxotrophic mutant of MTB H37Rv (SAMTB lux) which offers safety and practical advantages over working with wild type MTB. Our results show a SAMTB lux dose dependent survival of G. mellonella larvae and demonstrate proliferation and persistence of SAMTB lux bioluminescence over a 1 week infection time course. Histopathological analysis of G. mellonella, highlight the formation of early granuloma-like structures which matured over time. We additionally demonstrate the drug efficacy of first (isoniazid, rifampicin, and ethambutol) and second line (moxifloxacin) antimycobacterial drugs. Our findings demonstrate the broad potential of this insect model to study MTB infection under BSL2 conditions. We anticipate that the successful adaptation and implementation of this model will remove the inherent limitations of MTB research at BSL3 and increase tuberculosis research output.
Date Issued
2020-06-12
Date Acceptance
2020-06-07
Citation
Virulence, 2020, 11 (1), pp.811-824
ISSN
2150-5594
Publisher
Taylor & Francis Open
Start Page
811
End Page
824
Journal / Book Title
Virulence
Volume
11
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Sponsor
NC3Rs (National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research)
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32530737
Grant Number
NC/R001596/1
Subjects
Galleria mellonella
Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex
antimycobacterial agents
auxotrophic
drug screening
infection model
mycobacteria
tuberculosis
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
United States
Date Publish Online
2020-06-12