Candida haemulonii complex has emerged as notorious yeasts causing invasive infections with high rates of treatment failures. Since there is a particular interest in the development of non-mammalian host models to study microbial virulence, with the aim to evade the ethical impact of animal tests, herein we compared the virulence of C. haemulonii, C. duobushaemulonii and C. haemulonii var. vulnera with non-albicans Candida species (C. tropicalis, C. krusei and C. lusitaniae) on Galleria mellonella and the efficacy of antifungal drugs. All these fungi induced a dose-dependent effect on larvae killing, a decrease in hemocyte density and fungi were phagocytozed by hemocytes in equal proportions. Fungal inoculation caused early larvae melanization after some minutes of injection, followed by an augmented pigmentation after 24 h. Differences among species virulence can be explained, in part, by differences in growth rate and production of hydrolytic enzymes. First-line antifungals were tested with equivalent therapeutic doses and MIC profile in vitro was correlated with in vivo antifungal efficacy. Additionally, fungal burden increased in infected larvae along time and only caspofungin reduced the number of CFUs of C. haemulonii species complex. So, G. mellonella offers a simple and feasible model to study C. haemulonii complex virulence and drug efficacy.
Galleria mellonella larvae is an invertebrate that has been extensively used as experimental model in the investigation of microbial virulence and efficacy of antimicrobial agents and can be used to provide faster and cheaper data than traditional test systems. Our objective
was to propose the use of G. mellonella larvae as an In Vivo model to evaluate the toxicity of lipid-core nanocapsule (LNC) formulations having different surface coatings. Blank LNC formulations were coated with polysorbate 80 (LNC-1), lecithin and polysorbate 80 (LNC-2), and
lecithin, chitosan and polysorbate 80 (LNC-3). Subsequently, the formulations were systemically administered to G. mellonella larvae at doses of 3.75×10-14, 3.75×10-13, 3.75×10-12, 3.75×10-11 and 3.75×10-10
mols of LNC per kg of larvae. The results demonstrated that those nanocapsules having neutral (LNC-1), negative (LNC-2) or positive (LNC-3) surface did not show acute toxicity effects in G. mellonella larvae. G. mellonella larvae is a viable and promising alternative for In
Vivo nanotoxicological studies. We conclude that G. mellonella larvae can be used as an alternative model for the screening of the toxicity of polymeric nanocapsules functionalized with (i) polysorbate 80, (ii) lecithin and polysorbate 80, and (iii) lecithin, chitosan and polysorbate
80. Future studies can be now developed in order to evaluate their toxicity when loaded or functionalized with drugs.
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