Dataset Information

Understanding autoimmunity in the eye: from animal models to novel therapies.

ABSTRACT: In recent years considerable headway has been made on understanding the mechanisms underlying inflammatory diseases of the eye. This includes the role of the innate vs. adaptive arms of the immune systems in disease, the concept that distinct immune pathways can drive end-organ pathology, and the role as well as limitations of immune privilege in controlling the innate and adaptive effector responses that lead to eye pathology and loss of vision. These insights have largely been derived from basic studies in established and in newly developed animal models of uveitis. The increased understanding of disease mechanisms has the potential to guide development of rational therapies for human uveitis. Many novel biologics currently in use or being evaluated have been developed, or validated, in animal models of autoimmune and inflammatory disease, including experimental uveitis. Paradoxically, and fueled in part by dwindling research budgets, a campaign has been gathering momentum against use of animal models in preclinical research, as being poorly representative of responses in humans. Given the extensive genetic similarity between humans and laboratory rodents as revealed by the Human, Mouse and Rat Genome Projects, and the finding that almost all known disease-associated genes have orthologs in mice and rats, perhaps the problem is our still-insufficient understanding of mechanisms and inadequate knowledge of species differences, resulting in poor choice of models, rather than in an inherent unsuitability of animal models to represent human disease.

SUBMITTER: Caspi RR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4573559 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Understanding autoimmunity in the eye: from animal models to novel therapies.

Caspi Rachel R RR

Discovery medicine 20140301 93

In recent years considerable headway has been made on understanding the mechanisms underlying inflammatory diseases of the eye. This includes the role of the innate vs. adaptive arms of the immune systems in disease, the concept that distinct immune pathways can drive end-organ pathology, and the role as well as limitations of immune privilege in controlling the innate and adaptive effector responses that lead to eye pathology and loss of vision. These insights have largely been derived from bas ...[more]

PMID: 24641958

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Project description:BackgroundCysticercosis and Neurocysticercosis (NCC) can be studied using several animal species in experimental models which contributes to the understanding of the human form of the disease. Experimental infections of Taenia spp. are vital in explaining the modes of transmission of the parasite and helps the understanding of transmission of the parasite in humans and thus may be useful in designing therapeutic and immune-prophylactic studies to combat the disease. Thus, this systematic review aims to explore the existing experimental animal models to the understanding of cysticercosis in both humans and animals and elucidate the risk factors of cysticercosis and identify the Taenia spp. used in these models.MethodologyWe systematically identified all publications from the Web of Science, Google Scholar, and Pubmed regarding experimental animal models using Taenia spp. that cause cysticercosis in both humans and animals. 58 studies were identified for eligibility. Of these, only 48 studies met the inclusion criteria from which data extraction was done and presented descriptively.ResultsPigs, cattle, gerbils, mice, rats, voles, monkeys, cats, dogs, and goats were used in which T. solium, T. saginata, T. saginata asiatica, T. crassiceps and T. asiatica were studied. The routes used to induce disease were; oral, intravenous, subcutaneous, intramuscular, intraperitoneal, intraarterial, intracranial, intraduodenal, and surgical routes using eggs, oncospheres, and proglottids. Besides, the establishment of infection using eggs and oncospheres was affected by the route used to induce infection in the experimental animals. The cysticerci recovery rate in all the experimental studies was low and the number of animals used in these experiments varied from 1 to 84. Although not analysed statistically, sex, age, and breed of animals influenced the cysticerci recovery rate. Additionally, the cysticerci recovery rate and antibody-antigen levels were shown to increase with an increase in the dose of oncospheres and eggs inoculated in the animals. Contrasting results were reported in which the cysticerci recovery rate decreased with an increase in the dose of eggs inoculated.ConclusionThis review describes the various animal experiments using Taenia species that cause cysticercosis highlighting the animals used, age and their breed, the routes of infection used to induce disease and the sample size used, and the cysticerci recovery rate in these animal models.

Dataset Information

Understanding autoimmunity in the eye: from animal models to novel therapies.

Publications

Understanding autoimmunity in the eye: from animal models to novel therapies.

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