A Disconnect between the Neurospirochetoses in Humans and Rodent Models of Disease e1003288

• Published in: PLoS pathogens Vol. 9; no. 4
• Main Authors: Garcia-Monco, Juan C, Benach, Jorge L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Francisco Public Library of Science 01.04.2013
• Subjects: Encephalitis; HIV; Human immunodeficiency virus; Leptospirosis; Lyme disease; Meningitis; Rodents; Syphilis; United States > US
• ISSN: 1553-7366; 1553-7374
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1003288

Yet, most of the current animal models for the spirochetoses either do not recreate the manifestations of the neurological spectrum or require special manipulations to establish infection (Figure 1). [...]a major challenge for experimental approaches to the human neurological manifestations of the spirochetoses has been an inability or difficulties in reproducing all or some aspects of the human disease in animal models. T. pallidum was recovered from the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 30% of patients with early syphilis, indicating that invasion of the nervous system is a common and early event [8] and can include meningitis, visual and hearing manifestations, and facial palsy. There are a number of experimental approaches that could be used to document peripheral nerve and ocular disorders that have not been tried in the mouse model of Lyme borreliosis. [...]all of these possibilities have been explored, it is difficult to admit that the neurological manifestations that are so prominent in the human spirochetoses cannot be recreated in murine models.