TY - JOUR
T1 - Drosophila melanogaster as a model to study virulence and azole treatment of the emerging pathogen Candida auris
AU - Wurster, Sebastian
AU - Bandi, Ashwini
AU - Beyda, Nicholas D.
AU - Albert, Nathaniel D.
AU - Raman, Nitya M.
AU - Raad, Isaam I.
AU - Kontoyiannis, Dimitrios P.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by the Texas 4000 Distinguished Professorship for Cancer Research (to D. P. K.) and the NIH National Cancer Institute Cancer Center CORE Support (grant number 16672).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. All rights reserved.
PY - 2019/7/1
Y1 - 2019/7/1
N2 - Objectives: Candida auris is an emerging, often MDR, yeast pathogen. Efficient animal models are needed to study its pathogenicity and treatment. Therefore, we developed a C. auris fruit fly infection model. Methods: TollI-RXA/Tollr632 female flies were infected with 10 different C. auris strains from the CDC Antimicrobial Resistance bank panel. We used three clinical Candida albicans strains as controls. For drug protection assays, fly survival was assessed along withmeasurement of fungal burden (cfu/g tissue) and histopathology in C. aurisinfected flies fed with fluconazole-or posaconazole-containing food. Results: Despite slower in vitro growth, all 10 C. auris isolates caused significantly greater mortality than C. albicans in infected flies, with >80% of C. auris-infected flies dying by day 7 post-infection (versus 67% with C. albicans, P<0.001-0.005). Comparison of C. auris isolates from different geographical clades revealed more rapid in vitro growth of South American isolates and greater virulence in infected flies, whereas the aggregative capacity of C. auris strains had minimal impact on their growth and pathogenicity. Survival protection and decreased fungal burden of fluconazole-or posaconazole-fed flies infected with two C. auris strains were in line with the isolates' disparate in vitro azole susceptibility. High reproducibility of survival curves for both nontreated and antifungal-treated infected flies was seen, with coefficients of variation of 0.00-0.31 for 7 day mortality. Conclusions: Toll-deficient flies could provide a fast, reliable and inexpensive model to study pathogenesis and drug activity in C. auris candidiasis.
AB - Objectives: Candida auris is an emerging, often MDR, yeast pathogen. Efficient animal models are needed to study its pathogenicity and treatment. Therefore, we developed a C. auris fruit fly infection model. Methods: TollI-RXA/Tollr632 female flies were infected with 10 different C. auris strains from the CDC Antimicrobial Resistance bank panel. We used three clinical Candida albicans strains as controls. For drug protection assays, fly survival was assessed along withmeasurement of fungal burden (cfu/g tissue) and histopathology in C. aurisinfected flies fed with fluconazole-or posaconazole-containing food. Results: Despite slower in vitro growth, all 10 C. auris isolates caused significantly greater mortality than C. albicans in infected flies, with >80% of C. auris-infected flies dying by day 7 post-infection (versus 67% with C. albicans, P<0.001-0.005). Comparison of C. auris isolates from different geographical clades revealed more rapid in vitro growth of South American isolates and greater virulence in infected flies, whereas the aggregative capacity of C. auris strains had minimal impact on their growth and pathogenicity. Survival protection and decreased fungal burden of fluconazole-or posaconazole-fed flies infected with two C. auris strains were in line with the isolates' disparate in vitro azole susceptibility. High reproducibility of survival curves for both nontreated and antifungal-treated infected flies was seen, with coefficients of variation of 0.00-0.31 for 7 day mortality. Conclusions: Toll-deficient flies could provide a fast, reliable and inexpensive model to study pathogenesis and drug activity in C. auris candidiasis.
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U2 - 10.1093/jac/dkz100
DO - 10.1093/jac/dkz100
M3 - Article
C2 - 31225606
AN - SCOPUS:85068492981
SN - 0305-7453
VL - 74
SP - 1904
EP - 1910
JO - Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy
JF - Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy
IS - 7
ER -