Silkworm in Pharmacology and Toxicology

Abstract

 For long and healthy life, new drugs, medical services, and care must be developed against diseases. Laboratory animals are used in pharmacology and toxicology studies. The use of laboratory animals causes serious problems such as animal welfare and cost. Cell culture, which constitutes the first step of drug development, is used to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of drugs; however, it can cause failure due to unpredictable liver toxicity and bioavailability problems. Invertebrates are used to determine the desired effect in the early stages of drug development. Silkworm, an invertebrate, is one of the best models to represent genetic, biochemical studies due to its complex metabolism, large body, the abundance of mutants. Silkworms have been used in many studies on pathogenic microorganisms in the world. In this review, the information will be given on the use of silkworms as a pharmacological and toxicological animal model.