Philadelphia, PA —Imitating human diseases using an animal model
is a difficult task, but Thomas Jefferson University researchers
have managed to come very close. Reporting in the Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences,a team of Jefferson
immunologists found that a specialized “human immune system”
mouse model closely mimics a person’s specific response and
resolution of a tick-borne infection known as relapsing fever,
caused by the bacteria Borrelia hermsii. The response is so
strikingly similar that it gives good reason for researchers to
apply the strategy to a host of other infections to better
understand how the immune system attempts to fights them — which
could ultimately lead to precise treatment and prevention
strategies. “This is first time an interaction of an infectious
agent with a host, the progression of the disease and its
eventual resolution recapitulates what you would see in a human
being,” said Kishore R. Alugupalli, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
of Microbiology and Immunology at Tho