Abstract
Filarial worms cause a variety of tropical diseases in humans; however, they are difficult to study because they have complex life cycles that require arthropod intermediate hosts and mammalian definitive hosts. Research efforts in industrialized countries are further complicated by the fact that some filarial nematodes that cause disease in humans are restricted in host specificity to humans alone. This potentially makes the commitment to research difficult, expensive, and restrictive. Over 40 years ago, the United States National Institutes of Health–National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH-NIAID) established a resource from which investigators could obtain various filarial parasite species and life cycle stages without having to expend the effort and funds necessary to maintain the entire life cycles in their own laboratories. This centralized resource (The Filariasis Research Reagent Resource Center, or FR3) translated into cost savings to both NIH-NIAID and to principal investigators by freeing up personnel costs on grants and allowing investigators to divert more funds to targeted research goals. Many investigators, especially those new to the field of tropical medicine, are unaware of the scope of materials and support provided by the FR3. This review is intended to provide a short history of the contract, brief descriptions of the fiilarial species and molecular resources provided, and an estimate of the impact the resource has had on the research community, and describes some new additions and potential benefits the resource center might have for the ever-changing research interests of investigators.
Highlights
The United States National Institutes of Health–National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH-NIAID) Filariasis Research Reagent Resource Center (FR3) started in 1969 when Dr Paul Thompson, professor and later head of the Department of Parasitology at the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine (Athens, Georgia), obtained an NIH contract to establish the Filariasis Chemotherapy and Repository Research Services
Thompson and McCall became interested in the use of the Brugia system for antifilarial compound screening when Ash and Riley (University of California Los Angeles [UCLA]) published the experimental maintenance of Brugia malayi and Brugia pahangi in Mongolian jirds (Meriones unguiculatus) [1,2], which are commonly known as gerbils
McCall obtained B. pahangi–infected dogs and B. malayi–infected cats from Ash’s laboratory to maintain the parasites for the repository, and shortly thereafter obtained local Dirofilaria immitis– infected dogs, bringing the total number of filarial species housed at the University of Georgia (UGA) facility to five
Summary
The FR3 maintained five filarial species, their vertebrate hosts (dogs for D. immitis and B. pahangi, cats for B. malayi, cotton rats and Mongolian gerbils for L. sigmondontis, and gerbils for A. viteae, B. malayi, and B. pahangi), and their vectors (the aforementioned tick and mite species for A. viteae and L. sigmodontis, respectively), and A. aegypti LVP strain (for D. immitis, B. malayi, and B. pahangi). The previous contract, spanning 2003–2010, focused mainly on the production of D. immitis, B. pahangi, and B. malayi. During this time period, the FR3 responded to over 2,000 requests from almost 80 researchers for parasite materials. The number of requests for parasites has remained relatively stable over the period of the contract; changes in user trends have been apparent, primed largely by advances in molecular techniques that have enabled more studies on the human pathogen B. malayi. Keeping current with the changing needs of filariasis researchers has proven challenging; the circulation of an annual user survey has helped the FR3 adjust to meet user requests (e.g., increasing the number of B. malayi– infected cats and augmenting mosquito production to meet an overall anticipated increase in requests for the third-stage larvae of D. immitis, B. malayi, and B. pahangi). Contract year to re-establish the A. viteae life cycle at UW Oshkosh
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