Myllymäki Henna, Niskanen Mirja, Oksanen Kaisa E, Rämet Mika
BioMediTech, University of Tampere , FIN 33014 Tampere , Finland.
Expert Opin Drug Discov. 2015;10(8):871-83. doi: 10.1517/17460441.2015.1049529. Epub 2015 Jun 13.
Tuberculosis (TB) is a major global health problem, and new drugs and vaccines are urgently needed. As clinical trials in humans require tremendous resources, preclinical drug and vaccine development largely relies on valid animal models that recapitulate the pathology of human disease and the immune responses of the host as closely as possible.
This review describes the animal models used in TB research, the most widely used being mice, guinea pigs and nonhuman primates. In addition, rabbits and cattle provide models with a disease pathology resembling that of humans. Invertebrate models, including the fruit fly and the Dictyostelium amoeba, have also been used to study mycobacterial infections. Recently, the zebrafish has emerged as a promising model for studying mycobacterial infections. The zebrafish model also facilitates the large-scale screening of drug and vaccine candidates.
Animal models are needed for TB research and provide valuable information on the mechanisms of the disease and on ways of preventing it. However, the data obtained in animal studies need to be carefully interpreted and evaluated before making assumptions concerning humans. With an increasing understanding of disease mechanisms, animal models can be further improved to best serve research goals.
结核病是一个重大的全球健康问题，迫切需要新的药物和疫苗。由于人体临床试验需要巨大的资源，临床前药物和疫苗研发在很大程度上依赖于有效的动物模型，这些模型要尽可能逼真地再现人类疾病的病理以及宿主的免疫反应。
本综述描述了结核病研究中使用的动物模型，其中使用最广泛的是小鼠、豚鼠和非人灵长类动物。此外，兔子和牛也提供了疾病病理与人类相似的模型。无脊椎动物模型，包括果蝇和盘基网柄菌变形虫，也已被用于研究分枝杆菌感染。最近，斑马鱼已成为研究分枝杆菌感染的一种很有前景的模型。斑马鱼模型还便于大规模筛选候选药物和疫苗。
结核病研究需要动物模型，它们能为疾病机制和预防方法提供有价值的信息。然而，在对人类情况作出假设之前，需要仔细解读和评估动物研究中获得的数据。随着对疾病机制的认识不断加深，动物模型可以进一步改进，以更好地服务于研究目标。
