Mouse and Rat Wound-Infection Models for Testing New Drugs under Development

The development of new antibacterial drugs and new pharmaceutical forms for existing molecules is an extremely urgent problem in the context of global growth of antibiotic resistance. Wound infections are a common problem in patients with suppressed immunity and 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 main and most frequently used approaches. The development of such models can be divided into several stages: the choice of model animals, the method of introducing infection depending on the drug being tested, and the assessment of the pathogenetic process and the effectiveness of treatment. Evaluation of the course of the infection process can be carried out at different levels and include the following groups of methods: clinical, microbiological, physiological, biochemical, and methods of molecular genetic, ranging from the evaluation of the general condition of animals 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 that it induces, and the physicochemical features of the drug under development.