title: C. elegans for anti-infective discovery.
abstract: Widespread use of antimicrobial agents has led to the emergence of multidrug resistant pathogens, which are becoming increasingly common in clinical practice. This underscores the need to discover novel anti-infective compounds. The soil-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has proved to be an excellent model host in the search for such compounds. Indeed, this alternative host is successfully being used to identify traditional microbicidal agents, including antihelminthic compounds, as well as novel agents that attenuate microbial virulence or enhance the host's immune response. Thanks to numerous advantageous features, including its amenability to high-throughput automated screens that allow for the detection of bioactive products among thousands of tested substances, the C. elegans model is now in the spotlight of scientific attention.
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, United States.
authors.forename: Marios
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Arvanitis
authors.forename: Justin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Glavis-Bloom
authors.forename: Eleftherios
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mylonakis
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D055808:Drug Discovery; D057166:High-Throughput Screening Assays
chemical_list: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents