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Biosystems Technologies Ltd. have developed TruLarvTM, research grade Galleria mellonella larvae for use in chemical and drug development pipelines as early screens for assessing efficacy and toxicity. They are now seeking partners who could provide compounds to assess the utility and validity of this model in an industrial setting. The initial focus is in antimicrobial drug discovery platforms; however the larvae would have applications in related areas, such as the testing of drugs which modulate immune responses, and in the testing of environmental samples. Used as a preliminary screen, G. mellonella larvae facilitate the selection of promising leads for further testing in vertebrates, potentially reducing the number of vertebrate animals used in drug development.
G. mellonella larvae have been used widely in the past five years as microbial infection models, antimicrobial drug screening models, models to test the toxicity of chemicals, and models to understand the host response to infection. However, the model has not been adopted outside of academia because the larvae used are typically sold as feedstuffs for pet reptiles and fish. Whilst cheap to purchase, there are significant variations in the behaviour of larvae within batches and between batches. TruLarv™ G. mellonella larvae are weight and age defined, surface decontaminated and bred without the use of antibiotics or other drugs. They behave more consistently and reproducibly than pet shop larvae allowing the statistical power of experiments to be markedly increased.
To find out more about the application of these model systems and to contact Biosytems Technologies Ltd., please visit the CRACK IT Solutions webpages.