Development of Onchocerca volvulus in humanized NSG mice and detection of parasite biomarkers in urine and serum

Patton, John B.; Bennuru, Sasisekhar; Eberhard, Mark L.; Hess, Jessica A.; Torigian, April; Lustigman, Sara; Nutman, Thomas B.; Abraham, David

To assess the role of the mouse immune system in mediating resistance to O. volvulus, immunodeficient mouse strains were assessed for their susceptibility to infection with O. volvulus. In a preliminary set of studies, 250 O. volvulus L3 were injected into 2 NSG mice. After 4-weeks the skin and muscle from the mice was divided into 100 anatomically distinct sections and qPCR for O-150 was performed on extracted DNA from each section. Twenty-three of the sections were positive from, spatially widespread regions of the body. It was concluded that parasites survived in NSG mice and had the ability to migrate extensively. This indicated that all regions of the mice had to be inspected for the presence of parasites following infection.