Human Disease Models Using Non-Human Primates

Abstract

Among 200 species of NHPs, several monkeys and great apes are used for biomedical research. They are chimpanzees, and rhesus, cynomolgus and Japanese macaques which belong to the Old World monkeys, and the New World monkeys such as squirrel monkeys and common marmosets.
NHPs have advantages over other biomedical research mammals such as rodents in the ability to more reliably extrapolate their data directly to humans, because they have a closer genetic, morphological, and physiological relationship to humans than other experimental animals. Thus, infectious, senile or neurological disease models have been developed using NHPs. They are also used for translational studies of new medical technologies.
However, NHP also have some weak points, such as: they are expensive, hard to handle, the absence of genetic and biological controls, the high risk of zoonoses, need for compliance for CITES, legal quarantine before use etc. Despite these, and other disadvantages, NHP are still necessary for biomedical researches.
The key point of any NHP animal model is as follows. 1) The same animal model cannot be obtained in rodents. That is if the model is obtainable in rodents, then there is no need to develop a NHP animal model because it is easier to get results from rodents than from NHPs. 2) The NHP model covers data, which cannot be obtained from patients. That is if the data can be obtained from patients directly, it is easier to get results from patients than from NHPs. Only the NHP models which have the above tow characters may be a breakthrough of biomedical sciences.
I would like to introduce several NHP animal models including AID, EHEC, AZD, AMD, TCDD exposure and Gene therapy models in which we are conducting our projects in this symposium.