Greene B M
Ciba Found Symp. 1987;127:236-43. doi: 10.1002/9780470513446.ch16.
A major impediment to progress in research in onchocerciasis has been the lack of a suitable animal model. However, chimpanzees can be reliably infected by injection of living third-stage larvae of Onchocerca volvulus, and develop a pattern of infection that closely resembles that seen in humans. This includes the formation of nodules by adult worms, the subcutaneous distribution of microfilariae and the apparent lack of development of resistance to infection after repeated larval challenge. Ocular lesions resembling those in humans have not been observed in animals studied so far, but this may reflect in part the low intensity of infection and the limited time of observation. We infected 18 chimpanzees by subcutaneous injection of 250 third-stage larvae of O. volvulus. Six received ivermectin on day 1, another six received ivermectin on day 28 after infection, and six received no drug. Four control animals received no infective larvae and no drug. During the first year after infection, all three infected groups, but not control animals, have shown a clear increase in their lymphocyte blastogenic response to crude O. volvulus antigen in vitro. Antibody responses have also been increasing with time. Further assessment of the cellular and antibody responses in the infected chimpanzees is under way, as is evaluation of the effects of ivermectin on the course of infection.
盘尾丝虫病研究进展的一个主要障碍是缺乏合适的动物模型。然而，通过注射活的旋盘尾丝虫第三期幼虫，黑猩猩能够被可靠地感染，并形成一种与人类感染情况极为相似的感染模式。这包括成虫形成结节、微丝蚴在皮下分布以及在反复幼虫攻击后明显缺乏对感染的抵抗力。到目前为止，在已研究的动物中尚未观察到类似人类的眼部病变，但这可能部分反映了感染强度较低以及观察时间有限。我们通过皮下注射250条旋盘尾丝虫第三期幼虫感染了18只黑猩猩。其中6只在第1天接受了伊维菌素治疗，另外6只在感染后第28天接受了伊维菌素治疗，还有6只未接受药物治疗。4只对照动物未接受感染性幼虫且未接受药物治疗。在感染后的第一年，所有三个感染组，但对照动物未出现，在体外对粗制旋盘尾丝虫抗原的淋巴细胞增殖反应均有明显增加。抗体反应也随时间增加。目前正在对感染黑猩猩的细胞和抗体反应进行进一步评估，同时也在评估伊维菌素对感染进程的影响。
