Locusts: A Model to Investigate Human Disease and Sickness Behavior

Traditionally, vertebrate models have been utilized and are viewed as more pertinent; however, we propose the application of an invertebrate model such as locusts to study human disease and sickness behavior at an early phase of research. This model has numerous benefits, namely, expense, swiftness, procedural convenience, and ethical acceptance. For example, the injection of immunogen-induced anorexia behavior in rats and locusts in vivo are analogous. Moreover, the presence of a brain barrier in locusts reveals remarkable similarities in molecular methods utilized by E. coli K1 to traverse the central nervous system of rats and locusts, consequently providing a worthwhile model to investigate pathogenesis. The presence of cytokines in these insects and presence of a brain barrier (which is physiologically relevant to human blood-brain barrier) makes it a relevant model in determining disease mechanisms and invasion of the brain by central nervous system pathogens.