The Galleria mellonella infection model as a system to investigate the virulence of Candida auris strains. Issue 9 (24th October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Romera, David; Aguilera-Correa, John-Jairo; García-Coca, Marta; Mahillo-Fernández, Ignacio; Viñuela-Sandoval, Lourdes; García-Rodríguez, Julio; Esteban, Jaime
• Is Part Of: Pathogens and disease. Volume 78:Issue 9(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-10-24
• Subjects: Candida auris -- Galleria mellonella -- aggregative -- virulence -- pathogenicity; Medical microbiology -- Periodicals; Pathogenic microorganisms -- Periodicals; Communicable diseases -- Microbiology -- Periodicals; Communicable diseases -- Pathogenesis -- Periodicals; Host-parasite relationships -- Periodicals; Systems biology -- Periodicals; 616.904105
• DOI: 10.1093/femspd/ftaa067
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2049-632X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Candida auris is a multiresistant pathogenic yeast commonly isolated from bloodstream infections in immunocompromised patients. In this work, we infected Galleria mellonella larvae with 10 5 CFU of a reference strains and two clinical isolates of C. albicans and C. auris and we compared the outcomes of infection between both species. Larvae were evaluated every 24 h for a total of 120 h following the G. mellonella Health Index Scoring System, and survival, activity, melanization and cocoon formation were monitored. Our results showed that clinical isolates were significantly more pathogenic than reference strains independently of the tested species, producing lower survival and activity scores and higher melanization scores and being C. albicans strains more virulent than C. auris strains. We did not find differences in mortality between aggregative and non-aggregative C. auris strains, although non-aggregative strains produced significantly lower activity scores and higher melanization scores than aggregative ones. Survival assays using Galleria mellonella have been previously employed to examine and classify strains of this and other microbial species based on their virulence before scaling the experiments to a mammal model. Taken together, these results show how a more complete evaluation of the model can improve the study of C. auris isolates. Abstract : A more complete evaluation of the Galleria mellonella infection model can improve the study of Candida auris strains and help to unveil the relationship between phenotype and pathogenesis.