结核分枝杆菌感染实验模型

结核分枝杆菌是引起人结核病的主要病原,全世界约有1/3人口感染结核分枝杆菌。尽管该病原可感染并引起许多动物疾病,但人类是其中心宿主。为研究结核分枝杆菌的致病机理及宿主对本病原的保护性和免疫病理学反应,选择合适的动物模型非常必要。本文阐述了结核病研究中常用的实验模型及各种模型的优缺点。实验模型的合理应用将促进我们对结核病的认识,从中获取的资料将有助于我们发现更好的预防和治疗方案。     

结核分枝杆菌感染动物模型的研究进展

人类结核病位居单一病原引起死亡的严重传染病之首,结核分枝杆菌是其主要病原.尽管结核分枝杆菌可引起许多种动物感染并患病,但人类是其主要宿主.动物模型作为研究人类疾病的标准化工具,虽然不能完全模拟人类结核病的整个过程,但可成为研究结核病的有用工具,有助于研究其发病机制、治疗过程及宿主对病原的免疫病理学反应.由于不同种类动物...     

结核分枝杆菌在动物中的流行与传播

结核分枝杆菌(Mycobacterium tuberculosis)是一种重要的人兽共患病病原菌,人类是其主要宿主。千百年来,由于动物与人类关系密切,动物也成为结核分枝杆菌的重要宿主,且感染结核分枝杆菌的动物还能成为传染源,将其传播至人类和其他动物。关于动物感染结核分枝杆菌已有大量报道,包括大象、非人灵长类动物、貘、海狮、犬、猫、牛、鸟等。本文就结核分枝杆菌在野生动物、家畜中的流行与传播进行介绍,总结其在动物间传播的主要途径。     

结核病动物模型研究进展

结核病是由结核分枝杆菌感染引起的传染病,是危害人类健康的主要传染病之一。动物模型已经成为研究人类传染病的标准化工具。虽然对于结核分枝杆菌而言并没有真正意义的动物资源,但由于不同种类的动物,对分枝杆菌的敏感性不一样,因此可以成为结核病研究的有利工具。结核病最常用的实验动物模型包括小鼠、兔和豚鼠。每种动物有其自身特点,但并不能完全模拟人类疾病。通过建立结核病的动物模型,可以大大增加我们对疾病的病因、毒力和发病机制的理解。除了这三种模型外,非人灵长类也常被用于结核病的研究。本文总结了这几种结核病模型的研究状况。     

斑马鱼-海分枝杆菌模型研究对结核病致病机理的启示

全世界约三分之一的人口感染过结核分枝杆菌,其导致的结核病仍然是全球公共卫生的严重威胁。结核菌是典型的胞内致病菌。结核菌的致病性与其成功逃避和利用宿主免疫应答等密切相关。控制结核病需要深入了解致病菌和宿主之间的相互作用。不同的动物模型是揭示致病菌-宿主相互作用的关键。海分枝杆菌-斑马鱼模型是最近才得以发展并获得了不少新见解的研究系统之一。本文总结了该模型揭示的海分枝杆菌毒力因子Erp、Esx-1、pmiA、Mel1和Mel2、KasB等,以及该模型的优缺点。这些结果为大动物模型研究和深入了解结核分枝杆菌感染人体的致病机理提供了线索。     

果蝇免疫研究进展及其感染分枝杆菌的免疫特征

耐药性、持续感染以及与HIV病毒的共感染等诸多因素导致一度得到控制的结核病死灰复燃, 有效控制日益严峻的结核病迫切需要深入认识其致病菌——结核分枝杆菌Mycobacterium tuberculosis的基础生物学特性, 以及宿主相应的免疫控制机理。目前尚无一个动物模型能够同时回答这些关键问题, 而利用多种动物模型有望从不同角度回答上述问题, 普遍认为果蝇Drosophila 是比较理想的研究结核病天然免疫的简易模式动物之一。本文综述了果蝇免疫研究的最新进展, 包括免疫途径及其新成员与负调控子, 重点总结了用海分枝菌杆菌M. marinum、偶发分枝杆菌M. fortuitum和耻垢分枝杆菌M. smegmatis等分枝杆菌感染果蝇的新发现, 其中包括感染期间不诱导抗菌肽表达, 多个宿主因子(如CD36家族成员和ESCRT)参与了应答, 鉴定出具有杀灭分支杆菌作用的β-己糖酰胺酶, 感染期间能量代谢相关基因差异表达等。这些工作为利用果蝇模型快速筛选治疗结核病的新药物靶标和药物先导物提供了思路。     

Animal models of the immunology and pathogenesis of human babesiosis

Animal models of human babesiosis have provided a basic understanding of the immunological mechanisms that clear, or occasionally exacerbate, Babesia infection and those pathological processes that cause disease complications. Human Babesia infection can cause asymptomatic infection, mild to moderate disease, or severe disease resulting in organ dysfunction and death. More than 100 Babesia species infect a wide array of wild and domestic animals, and many of the immunologic and pathologic responses to Babesia infection are similar in animals and humans. In this review, we summarize the knowledge gained from animal studies, their limitations, and how animal models or alternative approaches can be further leveraged to improve our understanding of human babesiosis.     

Animal models of cholangiocarcinoma

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is an aggressive biliary tract malignancy with a poor overall prognosis. There is a critical need to develop effective targeted therapies for the treatment of this lethal disease. In an effort to address this challenge, preclinical in vivo studies have become paramount in understanding CCA carcinogenesis, progression, and therapy. Various CCA animal models exist including carcinogen-based models in which animals develop CCA after exposure to a carcinogen, genetically engineered mouse models in which genetic changes are induced in mice leading to CCA, murine syngeneic orthotopic models, as well as xenograft tumors derived from xenotransplantation of CCA cells, organoids, and patient-derived tissue. Each type has distinct advantages as well as shortcomings. In the ideal animal model of CCA, the tumor arises from the biliary tract in an immunocompetent host with a species-matched tumor microenvironment. Such a model would also be time-efficient, recapitulate the genetic and histopathological features of human CCA, and predict therapeutic response in humans. Recently developed biliary tract transduction and orthotopic syngeneic transplant mouse models encompass several of these elements. Herein, we review the different animal models of CCA, their advantages and deficiencies, as well as features which mimic human CCA.     

Location of intra- and extracellular M. tuberculosis populations in lungs of mice and guinea pigs during disease progression and after drug treatment

The lengthy treatment regimen for tuberculosis is necessary to eradicate a small sub-population of M. tuberculosis that persists in certain host locations under drug pressure. Limited information is available on persisting bacilli and their location within the lung during disease progression and after drug treatment. Here we provide a comprehensive histopathological and microscopic evaluation to elucidate the location of bacterial populations in animal models for TB drug development.To detect bacilli in tissues, a new combination staining method was optimized using auramine O and rhodamine B for staining acid-fast bacilli, hematoxylin QS for staining tissue and DAPI for staining nuclei. Bacillary location was studied in three animal models used in-house for TB drug evaluations: C57BL/6 mice, immunocompromised GKO mice and guinea pigs. In both mouse models, the bacilli were found primarily intracellularly in inflammatory lesions at most stages of disease, except for late stage GKO mice, which showed significant necrosis and extracellular bacilli after 25 days of infection. This is also the time when hypoxia was initially visualized in GKO mice by 2-piminidazole. In guinea pigs, the majority of bacteria in lungs are extracellular organisms in necrotic lesions and only few, if any, were ever visualized in inflammatory lesions. Following drug treatment in mice a homogenous bacillary reduction across lung granulomas was observed, whereas in guinea pigs the remaining extracellular bacilli persisted in lesions with residual necrosis. In summary, differences in pathogenesis between animal models infected with M. tuberculosis result in various granulomatous lesion types, which affect the location, environment and state of bacilli. The majority of M. tuberculosis bacilli in an advanced disease state were found to be extracellular in necrotic lesions with an acellular rim of residual necrosis. Drug development should be designed to target this bacillary population and should evaluate drug regimens in the appropriate animal models.     

The Bovine Lung in Biomedical Research: Visually Guided Bronchoscopy,Intrabronchial Inoculation and In Vivo Sampling Techniques

There is an ongoing search for alternative animal models in research of respiratory medicine. Depending on the goal of the research, large animals as models of pulmonary disease often resemble the situation of the human lung much better than mice do. Working with large animals also offers the opportunity to sample the same animal repeatedly over a certain course of time, which allows long-term studies without sacrificing the animals.The aim was to establish in vivo sampling methods for the use in a bovine model of a respiratory Chlamydia psittaci infection. Sampling should be performed at various time points in each animal during the study, and the samples should be suitable to study the host response, as well as the pathogen under experimental conditions.Bronchoscopy is a valuable diagnostic tool in human and veterinary medicine. It is a safe and minimally invasive procedure. This article describes the intrabronchial inoculation of calves as well as sampling methods for the lower respiratory tract. Videoendoscopic, intrabronchial inoculation leads to very consistent clinical and pathological findings in all inoculated animals and is, therefore, well-suited for use in models of infectious lung disease. The sampling methods described are bronchoalveolar lavage, bronchial brushing and transbronchial lung biopsy. All of these are valuable diagnostic tools in human medicine and could be adapted for experimental purposes to calves aged 6-8 weeks. The samples obtained were suitable for both pathogen detection and characterization of the severity of lung inflammation in the host.     

Control of iron metabolism in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Tuberculosis continues to kill millions of people around the world. New tools to prevent and treat this disease are urgently needed. Similar to most microorganisms, Mycobacterium tuberculosis--the causative agent of tuberculosis--requires iron for essential metabolic pathways. Because iron is not freely available in the host, pathogens must actively compete for this metal to establish an infection but they must also carefully control iron acquisition as excess free iron can be extremely toxic. Recent studies have demonstrated that failure to assemble the iron acquisition machinery or to repress iron uptake has deleterious effects for M. tuberculosis. Here, we review how M. tuberculosis obtains iron in a regulated manner and discuss how these processes could potentially be disrupted to interfere with the survival and replication of this bacterium in the host.     

Mycobacterium marinum produces long-term chronic infections in medaka: a new animal model for studying human tuberculosis

Human infection by Mycobacterium tuberculosis is endemic, with approximately 2 billion infected and is the most common cause of adult death due to an infectious agent. Because of the slow growth rate of M. tuberculosis and risk to researchers, other species of Mycobacterium have been employed as alternative model systems to study human tuberculosis (TB). Mycobacterium marinum may be a good surrogate pathogen, conferring TB-like chronic infections in some fish. Medaka (Oryzias latipes) has been established for over five decades as a laboratory fish model for toxicology, genotoxicity, teratogenesis, carcinogenesis, classical genetics and embryology. We are investigating if medaka might also serve as a host for M. marinum in order to model human TB. We show that both acute and chronic infections are inducible in a dose dependent manner. Colonization of target organs and systemic granuloma formation has been demonstrated through the use of histology. M. marinum expressing green fluorescent protein (Gfp) was used to monitor bacterial colonization of these organs in fresh tissues as well as in intact animals. Moreover, we have employed the See-Through fish line, a variety of medaka devoid of major pigments, to monitor real-time disease progression, in living animals. We have also compared the susceptibility of another prominent fish model, zebrafish (Danio rerio), to our medaka-M. marinum model. We determined the course of infections in zebrafish is significantly more severe than in medaka. Together, these results indicate that the medaka-M. marinum model provides unique advantages for studying chronic mycobacteriosis.     

Mycobacterium marinum Causes a Latent Infection that Can Be Reactivated by Gamma Irradiation in Adult Zebrafish

The mechanisms leading to latency and reactivation of human tuberculosis are still unclear, mainly due to the lack of standardized animal models for latent mycobacterial infection. In this longitudinal study of the progression of a mycobacterial disease in adult zebrafish, we show that an experimental intraperitoneal infection with a low dose (∼35 bacteria) of Mycobacterium marinum, results in the development of a latent disease in most individuals. The infection is characterized by limited mortality (25%), stable bacterial loads 4 weeks following infection and constant numbers of highly organized granulomas in few target organs. The majority of bacteria are dormant during a latent mycobacterial infection in zebrafish, and can be activated by resuscitation promoting factor ex vivo. In 5–10% of tuberculosis cases in humans, the disease is reactivated usually as a consequence of immune suppression. In our model, we are able to show that reactivation can be efficiently induced in infected zebrafish by γ-irradiation that transiently depletes granulo/monocyte and lymphocyte pools, as determined by flow cytometry. This immunosuppression causes reactivation of the dormant mycobacterial population and a rapid outgrowth of bacteria, leading to 88% mortality in four weeks. In this study, the adult zebrafish presents itself as a unique non-mammalian vertebrate model for studying the development of latency, regulation of mycobacterial dormancy, as well as reactivation of latent or subclinical tuberculosis. The possibilities for screening for host and pathogen factors affecting the disease progression, and identifying novel therapeutic agents and vaccine targets make this established model especially attractive.     

From “Us vs. Them” to “Shared Risk”: Can Animals Help Link Environmental Factors to Human Health?

Linking human health risk to environmental factors can be a challenge for clinicians, public health departments, and environmental health researchers. While it is possible that nonhuman animal species could help identify and mitigate such linkages, the fields of animal and human health remain far apart, and the prevailing human health attitude toward disease events in animals is an “us vs. them” paradigm that considers the degree of threat that animals themselves pose to humans. An alternative would be the development of the concepts of animals as models for environmentally induced disease, as well as potential “sentinels” providing early warning of both noninfectious and infectious hazards in the environment. For such concepts to truly develop, critical knowledge gaps need to be addressed using a “shared risk” paradigm based on the comparative biology of environment–host interactions in different species.     

Animals,disease, and man: making connections

The intricate causal relationships between disease in man and disease in animals first began to be elucidated in the mid-19th century. Although the connections between animal and human disease are now generally understood, individuals as well as societies remain slow to act on this knowledge. This paper examines the gradual recognition of these disease connections and explores the parallel theme of man's reluctance to appreciate the implications of these connections. It identifies factors that have inhibited the realization of the links between disease in man and animals, and discusses several milestones in the scientific elucidation of these links. Beginning with emerging concerns over the relationship between bovine and human tuberculosis in the 1860s, it follows the discovery of insect vectors, animal reservoirs, and the links between animals, influenza, and man. Despite warnings of the potential significance for human disease of patterns of changes in the relationship with animals and the natural world, scientists have continued to treat human and animal health as largely independent disciplines, while historians too have neglected this important aspect of human disease.     

The dynamics of vector-transmitted diseases in human communities

The development of vector-transmitted disease models and their application to field studies is reviewed. The key concepts of the basic rate of reproduction and disease transmission threshold are explained, and their application to disease control briefly illustrated. The complications involved in producing appropriate models are discussed for the case of the trypanosomatid parasites Leishmania and Trypanosoma that frequently have more than one vertebrate host and are often fatal in the human host. A two-species, vector-borne disease model allows a quantification of the role of animal reservoirs in maintaining human diseases. Human prevalence may be determined more by the parasitological characteristics of wild reservoir species, about which little is generally known, than by any other single feature of the complex interaction between parasites, vectors and hosts. Domestic animals are often ideal reservoirs, maintaining large numbers of vectors and considerably enlarging the parasite pool. When vector-transmitted diseases are fatal to the human host, human and vector dynamics interact in ways which may cause epidemic cycles, low-level endemic equilibria or disease extinction. For both leishmaniasis and trypanosomiasis it is suggested that a very small number of chronic human cases can maintain the disease in the human population over long periods of time between epidemic outbreaks. They may also be important in the maintenance of geographically distinct foci, characteristic of human trypanosomiasis in Africa. Finally there is a plea to establish a tradition of field observation leading to, and being directed by, mathematical models which in turn are modified as the observations accumulate. All too often, one-way traffic between the two results in slow, or misguided, progress.     

Sterilization as an alternative strategy to control wildlife diseases: bovine tuberculosis in European badgers as a case study

Sterilization has rarely been considered as an alternative to culling or vaccination to control wildlife diseases. Disease control by sterilization, as by culling, has most promise when the host'ss ability for compensatory growth following the removal of density-dependent inhibitions is limited, and when moderate reductions in population density cause disproportionately large reductions in disease prevalence, or even eliminate the disease. For many host/disease examples this will not be the case and vaccination may have overwhelming advantages or may be the only practical option. The impact of sterilization on host density and disease prevalence will develop relatively slowly because sterilization can prevent the recruitment of only one age-cohort at a time. Moreover, unless there is vertical transmission, this age-cohort will consist only of susceptibles. Culling, on the contrary, removes infected as well as susceptible animals. However, for certain disease/host examples, the r elative effectiveness of the different control strategies may be altered considerably if their variable effects on the probability of disease transmission are taken into account. Social perturbation or stress could render certain culling strategies ineffective or even counter-productive. Depending on how disease dynamics are influenced by the host'ss age-structure and reproductive investment, fertility control could offer epidemiological advantages that have been ignored by most disease/host models. We illustrate some of these principles by investigating the theoretical and practical feasibility of an hypothetical sterilization campaign to control bovine tuberculosis in badgers (and hence cattle) in Britain.     

Mycobacterium tuberculosis triggers host type I IFN signaling to regulate IL-1β production in human macrophages

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a virulent intracellular pathogen that survives in macrophages even in the presence of an intact adaptive immune response. Type I IFNs have been shown to exacerbate tuberculosis in mice and to be associated with disease progression in infected humans. Nevertheless, the mechanisms by which type I IFNs regulate the host response to M. tuberculosis infection are poorly understood. In this study, we show that M. tuberculosis induces an IFN-related gene expression signature in infected primary human macrophages, which is dependent on host type I IFN signaling as well as the mycobacterial virulence factor, region of difference-1. We further demonstrate that type I IFNs selectively limit the production of IL-1β, a critical mediator of immunity to M. tuberculosis. This regulation occurs at the level of IL1B mRNA expression, rather than caspase-1 activation or autocrine IL-1 amplification and appears to be preferentially used by virulent mycobacteria since avirulent M. bovis bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) fails to trigger significant expression of type I IFNs or release of mature IL-1β protein. The latter property is associated with decreased caspase-1-dependent IL-1β maturation in the BCG-infected macrophages. Interestingly, human monocytes in contrast to macrophages produce comparable levels of IL-1β in response to either M. tuberculosis or BCG. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that virulent and avirulent mycobacteria employ distinct pathways for regulating IL-1β production in human macrophages and reveal that in the case of M. tuberculosis infection the induction of type I IFNs is a major mechanism used for this purpose.     

Mycobacterium tuberculosis: just desserts for an ungrateful guest

Myobacterium tuberculosis is the most common infectious cause of death in the world, with up to one-third of the population infected. In industrial countries infection with M. tuberculosis and tuberculosis disease has been decreasing since the 19th century. Now, however, tuberculosis disease is on the increase again, with resistance of the bacillus to available drugs spreading rapidly. This resurgence can be seen from the ecological and evolutionary point of view, where human hosts are the niche of the tuberculosis bacillus.     

Revisiting the evolution of Mycobacterium bovis

Though careful consideration has been placed towards genetic characterization of tubercle bacillus isolates causing disease in humans, those causing disease predominantly among wild and domesticated mammals have received less attention. In contrast to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, whose host range is largely specific to humans, M. bovis and "M bovis-like" organisms infect a broad range of animal species beyond their most prominent host in cattle. To determine whether strains of variable genomic content are associated with distinct distributions of disease, the DNA contents of M. bovis or M. bovis-like isolates from a variety of hosts were investigated via Affymetrix GeneChip. Consistent with previous genomic analysis of the M. tuberculosis complex (MTC), large sequence polymorphisms of putative diagnostic and biological consequence were able to unambiguously distinguish interrogated isolates. The distribution of deleted regions indicates organisms genomically removed from M. bovis and also points to structured genomic variability within M. bovis. Certain genomic profiles spanned a variety of hosts but were clustered by geography, while others associated primarily with host type. In contrast to the prevailing assumption that M. bovis has broad host capacity, genomic profiles suggest that distinct MTC lineages differentially infect a variety of mammals. From this, a phylogenetic stratification of genotypes offers a predictive framework upon which to base future genetic and phenotypic studies of the MTC.