Silkworm as a model animal to evaluate drug candidate toxicity and metabolism

Pre-exposure ofGalleria mellonellalarvae to different doses ofAspergillus fumigatusconidia causes differential activation of cellular and humoral immune responses

“…16,17 Understanding the mechanisms employed by insects to withstand infection is critical to the successful use of them as models.…”

Identification of lysocin E using a silkworm model of bacterial infection

“…In a silkworm model, the lethal doses of cytotoxic compounds were highly c orrelated with that in rat model, suggesting that silkworms are a suitable model for evaluation of the acute phase toxicity of cytotoxic compounds (5,6). These results suggest that therapeutic effect of antibiotics on silkworm infection model is reflected by pharmacokinetics and cytotoxic effect, which mimics those in mammals (7).…”

Evaluation of innate immune stimulating activity of polysaccharides using a silkworm (Bombyx mori) muscle contraction assay

“…PP induces activation of cellular and humoral immunity (7,10), thus it is likely that the silkworm muscle contraction by PP reflects activation of the innate immune system. The advantages of using the silkworm muscle contraction assay to evaluate immunostimulants include the following: i) the system does not respond to LPS due to presence of LPS-absorbing proteins in the hemolymph; ii) as the method is based on bioassay using the silkworm body, it can be used to exclude compounds with pharmacokinetic problems; and iii) compounds that are toxic can be excluded using the bioassay with silkworm muscle specimens (11)(12)(13)(14).…”

“…Furthermore, using the silkworm model, ADMET (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity) of compounds can be easily evaluated (13,14,40). We propose that screening substances that activate innate immune systems using the silkworm muscle contraction assay system is an efficient method for identifying therapeutically effective compounds for infectious diseases, as a pre-screening system prior to more advanced stages of evaluation with mammals.…”