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 test the hypothesis that mouse-intrinsic immune responses control O. volvulus infections, NSG mice that lack both functional innate and adaptive immune systems were infected with O. volvulus L3. Advanced stages of the parasites were consistently recovered from the infected NSG mice, and parasites survived and developed over the 8-week time course into advanced L4. These findings demonstrate that the mouse immune response was capable of controlling infection with O. volvulus, with elements of the mouse immune response eliminating the infection in immunologically intact mice. Many mechanisms have been described for innate immune control of nematode infections in mice [39, [60] [61] [62] [63] [64] [65] [66] [67] all or some of which may be effective against O. volvulus. Interestingly, tissues and cells in NSG mice provide required factors for parasite development and based on PCR analyses, the larvae actively migrated far from the infection site.