Syrian Hamster as an Animal Model for the Study on Infectious Diseases
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Volume
10
Publisher
DOI
10.3389/fimmu.2019.02329
Journal
FRONTIERS IN IMMUNOLOGY
ISSN
1664-3224
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Infectious diseases still remain one of the biggest challenges for human health. In
order to gain a better understanding of the pathogenesis of infectious diseases and
develop effective diagnostic tools, therapeutic agents, and preventive vaccines, a suitable
animal model which can represent the characteristics of infectious is required. The
Syrian hamster immune responses to infectious pathogens are similar to humans and
as such, this model is advantageous for studying pathogenesis of infection including
post-bacterial, viral and parasitic pathogens, along with assessing the efficacy and
interactions of medications and vaccines for those pathogens. This review summarizes
the current status of Syrian hamster models and their use for understanding the
underlying mechanisms of pathogen infection, in addition to their use as a drug discovery
platform and provides a strong rationale for the selection of Syrian hamster as animal
models in biomedical research. The challenges of using Syrian hamster as an alternative
animal model for the research of infectious diseases are also addressed.
Keywords: infectious diseases, Syrian hamster, drug discovery, infection mechanism, biomedical research