School of Life Science and Biopharmacy, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Bioactive Substances, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, China.
Guangdong Key Laboratory of Laboratory Animals, Guangdong Laboratory Animals Monitoring Institute, Guangzhou, China.
Arthritis Res Ther. 2022 Jan 3;24(1):1. doi: 10.1186/s13075-021-02679-5.
Ankylosing spondylitis is a progressive, disabling joint disease that affects millions worldwide. Given its unclear etiology, studies of ankylosing spondylitis relied heavily on drug-induced or transgenic rodent models which retain only partial clinical features. There is obviously a lack of a useful disease model to conduct comprehensive mechanistic studies.
We followed a group of cynomolgus monkeys having joint lesions reported of spinal stiffness for 2 years by conducting hematological testing, radiographic examination, family aggregation analysis, pathological analysis, and genetic testing.
The results confirmed that these diseased animals suffered from spontaneous ankylosing spondylitis with clinical features recapitulating human ankylosing spondylitis disease progression, manifested by pathological changes and biochemical indicators similar to that of ankylosing spondylitis patients.
The study offers a promising non-human primate model for spontaneous ankylosing spondylitis which may serve as an excellent substitute for its pre-clinical research.
强直性脊柱炎是一种全球性的进行性、致残性关节疾病,影响着数百万人。鉴于其病因不明,强直性脊柱炎的研究主要依赖于药物诱导或转基因啮齿动物模型,这些模型仅保留部分临床特征。显然缺乏一种有用的疾病模型来进行全面的机制研究。
我们对一组出现关节病变和脊柱僵硬报告的食蟹猴进行了 2 年的跟踪研究,包括血液学检测、影像学检查、家族聚集分析、病理学分析和基因检测。
研究结果证实,这些患病动物患有自发性强直性脊柱炎,其临床特征与人类强直性脊柱炎的疾病进展相吻合,表现为与强直性脊柱炎患者相似的病理变化和生化指标。
本研究提供了一种有前途的自发性强直性脊柱炎非人类灵长类动物模型,可作为其临床前研究的理想替代模型。