Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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United Press International - October 23, 2006
The researchers at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center said normal mice are not susceptible to human-specific viruses, making it difficult to study and craft drugs to target such viruses as HIV or Epstein Barr, the virus that causes mononucleosis.
So the researchers, working with University of Minnesota collaborators, generated human-mice "chimeras" -- mice implanted with human tissues and human stem cells -- that developed fully functional human immune systems and infection-fighting cells, such as T cells. The T cells in the mice even mounted a potent immune response to toxic shock syndrome and infection by Epstein Barr.
"These human-mice 'chimeras' are susceptible to a variety of human-specific viruses that couldn't be easily studied in the past, giving scientists a new way to study, develop and implement novel vaccines and therapeutics to fight human disease like cancer and AIDS," said Dr. J. Victor Garcia, professor of internal medicine at the medical center and the study's senior author.
The research appears online in the journal Nature Medicine.
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