An Experimental Adult Zebrafish Model for Shigella Pathogenesis, Transmission, and Vaccine Efficacy Studies

Abstract

Shigellosis is a diarrheal disease that is prevalent in developing countries and especially dangerous in young children. Currently, animal models for shigellosis are unable to model some aspects of the infectious cycle. Here, we describe a new shigellosis model in adult zebrafish, an increasingly common model organism for studying bacterial pathogens. The zebrafish model can be used to study Shigella colonization, transmission, and immune responses, as well as test vaccine efficacy.

Using a zebrafish model to understand adherent-invasive Escherichia coli infection

“…Zebrafish are useful for studying numerous infectious diseases, in particular enteric diseases. Zebrafish is a natural model for Vibrio cholerae infection ( Runft et al., 2014 ; Nag et al., 2018a , 2018b , 2020 ) and immune responses ( Farr et al., 2021 , 2022 ), as well as for other enteric pathogens including Salmonellae ( Howlader et al., 2016 ) and Shigellae ( Howlader et al., 2022 ). Recently a zebrafish model was developed to study AIEC, which is an opportunistic pathogen causing inflammation, sometimes progressing to inflammation-induced colon cancer during unfavorable conditions in the gut ( Nag et al., 2022 ).…”