Mice and rats wound infection models for testing new drugs under development

The development of new antibacterial drugs and its new pharmaceutical forms for existing molecules is an extremely urgent problem in the context of global growth of antibiotic resistance. Wound infections are one of the common problems in patients with suppressed immunity, chronic diseases, during surgical interventions, etc. Based on the published research, the authors compiled the methodological recommendations for the development of wound infection models in animals, by selecting the principal and most frequently used approaches. The development of such models can be divided into several stages: the choice of the model animals, the method of introducing infection depending on the drug being tested, the assessment of the pathogenetic process and the effectiveness of treatment. Evaluation of the course of the infectious process can be carried out at different levels and include the following groups of methods: clinical, microbiological, physiological, biochemical and molecular genetic, ranging from the evaluation of animals’ general condition to the assessment of inflammation markers. The choice of a specific set of methods depends on the properties of the molecule or drug tested, the pathogen’s nature, and the infection it induces, the physicochemical features of the drug under development.