Studies on a luminescent antimicrobial metal complex reveal a method to directly image pathogenic bacterial infection in a living organism using optical microscopy

Methods to render Galleria Mellonella larvae transparent allowing three-dimensional viewing of larvae through orthodox light microscopy techniques are reported. To explore this model’s capability, we exploited the imaging properties of a metal complex antimicrobial to probe its therapeutic action against a pathogenic Acetinobacter baumannii infection. To illustrate the general utility of this method, we have also used the commercial fluorescent dye, Alexafluor-488, to image bacteria within live larvae.