Johansen, M. D., Spaink, H. P., Oehlers, S. H., & Kremer, L. (2023). Modeling nontuberculous mycobacterial infections in zebrafish. Trends in Microbiology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tim.2023.11.011
Abstract:
The incidence of infections due to nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) has increased rapidly in recent years, surpassing tuberculosis in developed countries. Due to inherent antimicrobial resistance, NTM infections are particularly difficult to treat with low cure rates. There is an urgent need to understand NTM pathogenesis and to develop novel therapeutic approaches for the treatment of NTM diseases. Zebrafish have emerged as an excellent animal model due to genetic amenability and optical transparency during embryonic development, allowing spatiotemporal visualization of host–pathogen interactions. Furthermore, adult zebrafish possess fully functional innate and adaptive immunity and recapitulate important pathophysiological hallmarks of mycobacterial infection. Here, we report recent breakthroughs in understanding the hallmarks of NTM infections using the zebrafish model.
License type:
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
Funding Info:
This research / project is supported by the NMRC - Individual Research Grant
Grant Reference no. : OFIRG22jul-0081
This study was supported by the Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale (Equipe FRM EQU202103012588), and by the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking (IMI2 JU) under the RespiriNTM project (Grant No. 853932).