A novel animal model of Borrelia recurrentis louse-borne relapsing fever borreliosis using immunodeficient mice.
Louse-borne relapsing fever (LBRF) borreliosis is caused by Borrelia recurrentis, and it is a deadly although treatable disease that is endemic in the Horn of Africa but has epidemic potential. Research on LBRF has been severely hampered because successful infection with B. recurrentis has been achi...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:780ad88ccbf64ba1a18da9b77a53d8bd 2023-05-15T15:16:08+02:00 A novel animal model of Borrelia recurrentis louse-borne relapsing fever borreliosis using immunodeficient mice. Christer Larsson Jenny Lundqvist Nico van Rooijen Sven Bergström 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0000522 https://doaj.org/article/780ad88ccbf64ba1a18da9b77a53d8bd EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2742892?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0000522 https://doaj.org/article/780ad88ccbf64ba1a18da9b77a53d8bd PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 3, Iss 9, p e522 (2009) Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 article 2009 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0000522 2022-12-31T01:28:30Z Louse-borne relapsing fever (LBRF) borreliosis is caused by Borrelia recurrentis, and it is a deadly although treatable disease that is endemic in the Horn of Africa but has epidemic potential. Research on LBRF has been severely hampered because successful infection with B. recurrentis has been achieved only in primates (i.e., not in other laboratory or domestic animals). Here, we present the first non-primate animal model of LBRF, using SCID (-B, -T cells) and SCID BEIGE (-B, -T, -NK cells) immunocompromised mice. These animals were infected with B. recurrentis A11 or A17, or with B. duttonii 1120K3 as controls. B. recurrentis caused a relatively mild but persistent infection in SCID and SCID BEIGE mice, but did not proliferate in NUDE (-T) and BALB/c (wild-type) mice. B. duttonii was infectious but not lethal in all animals. These findings demonstrate that the immune response can limit relapsing fever even in the absence of humoral defense mechanisms. To study the significance of phagocytic cells in this context, we induced systemic depletion of such cells in the experimental mice by injecting them with clodronate liposomes, which resulted in uncontrolled B. duttonii growth and a one-hundred-fold increase in B. recurrentis titers in blood. This observation highlights the role of macrophages and other phagocytes in controlling relapsing fever infection. B. recurrentis evolved from B. duttonii to become a primate-specific pathogen that has lost the ability to infect immunocompetent rodents, probably through genetic degeneration. Here, we describe a novel animal model of B. recurrentis based on B- and T-cell-deficient mice, which we believe will be very valuable in future research on LBRF. Our study also reveals the importance of B-cells and phagocytes in controlling relapsing fever infection. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 3 9 e522 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
spellingShingle |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Christer Larsson Jenny Lundqvist Nico van Rooijen Sven Bergström A novel animal model of Borrelia recurrentis louse-borne relapsing fever borreliosis using immunodeficient mice. |
topic_facet |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
description |
Louse-borne relapsing fever (LBRF) borreliosis is caused by Borrelia recurrentis, and it is a deadly although treatable disease that is endemic in the Horn of Africa but has epidemic potential. Research on LBRF has been severely hampered because successful infection with B. recurrentis has been achieved only in primates (i.e., not in other laboratory or domestic animals). Here, we present the first non-primate animal model of LBRF, using SCID (-B, -T cells) and SCID BEIGE (-B, -T, -NK cells) immunocompromised mice. These animals were infected with B. recurrentis A11 or A17, or with B. duttonii 1120K3 as controls. B. recurrentis caused a relatively mild but persistent infection in SCID and SCID BEIGE mice, but did not proliferate in NUDE (-T) and BALB/c (wild-type) mice. B. duttonii was infectious but not lethal in all animals. These findings demonstrate that the immune response can limit relapsing fever even in the absence of humoral defense mechanisms. To study the significance of phagocytic cells in this context, we induced systemic depletion of such cells in the experimental mice by injecting them with clodronate liposomes, which resulted in uncontrolled B. duttonii growth and a one-hundred-fold increase in B. recurrentis titers in blood. This observation highlights the role of macrophages and other phagocytes in controlling relapsing fever infection. B. recurrentis evolved from B. duttonii to become a primate-specific pathogen that has lost the ability to infect immunocompetent rodents, probably through genetic degeneration. Here, we describe a novel animal model of B. recurrentis based on B- and T-cell-deficient mice, which we believe will be very valuable in future research on LBRF. Our study also reveals the importance of B-cells and phagocytes in controlling relapsing fever infection. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Christer Larsson Jenny Lundqvist Nico van Rooijen Sven Bergström |
author_facet |
Christer Larsson Jenny Lundqvist Nico van Rooijen Sven Bergström |
author_sort |
Christer Larsson |
title |
A novel animal model of Borrelia recurrentis louse-borne relapsing fever borreliosis using immunodeficient mice. |
title_short |
A novel animal model of Borrelia recurrentis louse-borne relapsing fever borreliosis using immunodeficient mice. |
title_full |
A novel animal model of Borrelia recurrentis louse-borne relapsing fever borreliosis using immunodeficient mice. |
title_fullStr |
A novel animal model of Borrelia recurrentis louse-borne relapsing fever borreliosis using immunodeficient mice. |
title_full_unstemmed |
A novel animal model of Borrelia recurrentis louse-borne relapsing fever borreliosis using immunodeficient mice. |
title_sort |
novel animal model of borrelia recurrentis louse-borne relapsing fever borreliosis using immunodeficient mice. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2009 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0000522 https://doaj.org/article/780ad88ccbf64ba1a18da9b77a53d8bd |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 3, Iss 9, p e522 (2009) |
op_relation |
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2742892?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0000522 https://doaj.org/article/780ad88ccbf64ba1a18da9b77a53d8bd |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0000522 |
container_title |
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
container_volume |
3 |
container_issue |
9 |
container_start_page |
e522 |
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1766346439518060544 |