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Pathogenic infections are the cause of millions of deaths all over the world. Limitations in the use of mammalian models and requirements for novel strategies to counter resistant bugs have led to the emergence of insects as alternative models. Insects are widely used as feasible and convenient model systems to evaluate pathogenesis of numerous human pathogens. The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster...
Inflammatory diseases of the lung such as asthma and COPD show an increasing prevalence in western countries. Although these diseases are typically complex ones, they have an important genetic component. Genome-wide association studies have provided us with a comprehensive list of asthma susceptibility genes that will be extended substantially in the near future. To identify the role of these genes...
As an ancient mechanism of innate immunity virtually all multi-cellular organisms produce anti-microbial peptides (AMPs) that directly kill pathogens. Various AMPs, typically reaching high concentrations in the hemolymph, allow insects to cope with infections and to survive in habitats with massive microbial pressure. AMPs are also indispensable as part of the human innate immune system, besides the...
The definition of insect biotechnology provided in this book refers to any technological application that uses insects or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use in agriculture, food science, and medicine. The most prominent application of insects or insect-derived molecules in medicine is known as maggot therapy or biosurgery. The term maggot therapy has been...
Natural products play an essential role in our everyday life as almost all antibiotics or anti-cancer compounds currently in clinical use are either natural products or derivatives thereof. Mainly due to increasing resistance against these antibiotics there is an urgent need for novel bioactive natural products and several strategies are currently in use to find new compounds. In this chapter insects...
Because of their enormous species diversity insects represent an interesting and promising source for low molecular biologically active natural products which either are de novo synthesized by the insect or by associated microorganisms. Many of the structures show that potential pharmaceuticals can be found which may be used for human and veterinary medicine. Concerning the toxic terpene anhydride...
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