Using zebrafish larvae to investigate host-pathogen interactions during mucromycosis

Orateur : Kerstin VOELTZ (School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, UK)

Mucormycosis is an emerging and clinically difficult to manage fungal infection with increasing incidence and extremely high mortality rates. Individuals with diabetes, suppressed immunity or traumatic injury are at increased risk of developing disease. These patients often present with defects in innate immunity, especially phagocytic effector cell function. However, little is known about the innate immune response to mucormycosis to date and current model systems are not satisfactory to directly analyse the interaction between innate immune effector cells and fungal sporangiospores, the infectious propagule, in vivo. In this talk, I will focus on using zebrafish larval model system for host-pathogen interactions during fungal infections caused by zygomycetes. Traditional animal models do not provide insights into cellular interactions between pathogens and host cells (e.g. immune effector cells). In recent years, the zebrafish model, Danio rerio, has become an accepted model system for the study of infectious diseases. I will discuss the establishment of zebrafish larval model for mucormycosis to study the molecular pathogenesis mechanisms involved in this fungal disease.

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