The morbidity and mortality associated with systemic fungal infections in humans cannot be underestimated. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has become popular for the in vivo study of the pathogenesis of human fungal pathogens and as an antifungal drug-screening tool. C. elegans offers many advantages as a model organism for the study of human fungal diseases, including lack of ethics requirements, easy maintenance in the laboratory, fully sequenced genome, availability of genetic mutants, and the possibility of liquid assays for high-throughput antifungal screening. Its major drawbacks include the inability to grow at 37 °C and absence of an adaptive immune response. However, several virulence factors involved in the pathogenesis of medically important fungal pathogens have been identified using the C. elegans model, consequently providing new leads for drug discovery and potential drug targets. We review the use of C. elegans as a model animal to understand the pathogenesis of medically important human fungal pathogens and the discovery of novel antifungal compounds. The review makes a case for C. elegans as a suitable invertebrate model for a plethora of practical applications in the investigation of fungal pathogenesis as well as its amenability for liquid-based high-throughput screening of potential antifungal compounds.

中文翻译：

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秀丽隐杆线虫作为研究真菌发病机理的模型动物。

与人类全身性真菌感染相关的发病率和死亡率不可低估。线虫秀丽隐杆线虫已经广泛用于人真菌病原体的发病机理的体内研究和作为抗真菌药物筛选工具。秀丽隐杆线虫作为研究人类真菌疾病的模型有机体，它具有许多优势，包括缺乏伦理学要求，实验室易于维护，基因组已完全测序，遗传突变体的可用性以及用于高通量抗真菌筛选的液体分析的可能性。它的主要缺点包括无法在37°C下生长以及缺乏适应性免疫应答。然而，已经使用线虫模型鉴定了与医学上重要的真菌病原体的发病机理有关的几种毒力因子，从而为药物发现和潜在的药物靶标提供了新的线索。我们回顾线虫的使用作为模型动物来了解医学上重要的人类真菌病原体的发病机理和新型抗真菌化合物的发现。审查为线虫作为在真菌发病机理及其对潜在的抗真菌化合物的液基高通量筛选研究中的大量实际应用的合适无脊椎动物模型的案例。