Comparison of <i>Galleria mellonella</i> , Epithelial Cell Cytotoxicity, and Mouse Model of Bacteremia to Measure <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i> Virulence
We found that virulence measurements in a <i>G. mellonella</i> infection model showed a semistrong correlation with those from a mouse bacteremia model and that this insect larval model adequately detected population-level trends similarly to mice. In contrast, A549 epithelial-like cell lysis during bacterial co-culture correlated less well with mouse virulence. Together, these results support the use of <i>G. mellonella</i> as a scalable, low-cost, and humane first-line model for assessing <i>P. aeruginosa</i> virulence but also indicate that conclusions should be validated in mice.
Authors
- Sumitra D. Mitra (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7239-4000)
- Jonathan P. Allen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5930-1524)
- D. Hynes
- Tania Afzal
- Aliki Valdes
- Prarthana Prashanth (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-9901-4494)
- William Cheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-5553-3672)
- Travis J. Kochan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7560-8550)
- Alan R. Hauser (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4596-7939)
- Timothy J. Ward (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0864-2561)
- Joanne Lee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7935-3233)
- Antonio Oliver (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9327-1894)
- Kelly E. R. Bachta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8838-5117)
- Julia Nelson
- Nathan B. Pincus (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3134-7176)
- Ethan M. VanGosen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-4219-3774)
- Christopher M. R. Axline (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-8392-5991)
- Cheng-Hsun Chiu
- Jake Hauser
- Timothy L. Turner
- Egon A. Ozer
- Preeti Garai
- Daniel Amusin
- Sophia Nozick
- Issay Niki
Institutions
- Northwestern University (US)
- Tufts University (US)
- Georgia Institute of Technology (US)
- Chang Gung University (TW)
- Hamilton College (US)
- Northeastern Illinois University (US)
- Chang Gung Memorial Hospital (TW)
- Yale University (US)
- Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (US)
- Health Research Institute of the Balearic Islands (ES)
- Hospital Universitario Son Espases (ES)
Publication Details
- Journal
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
- Published
- 2026-03-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.03.16.712016
- Primary Topic
- Aquaculture disease management and microbiota
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00