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Modelling infectious disease — time to think outside the box?

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 4, pages 307–312 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Models occupy an essential position in the study of infectious disease as a result of the ethical problems of exposing humans to potentially lethal agents. Deliberately induced infections in well-defined animal models provide much useful information about disease processes in an approximation of their natural context. Despite this, animal models are not the natural disease process, and recent experimental advances show, perhaps not unsurprisingly, that there are large differences between natural infections and animal models. Focusing on mouse models of bacterial pathogens, we discuss some of these discrepancies and suggest ways of improving model systems in the future.

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Figure 1: In vivo infection models.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the Wellcome Trust.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Cell and Molecular Biology, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London, SW7 2AZ, UK

    Siouxsie Wiles & Gad Frankel

  2. Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, St Mary's Hospital, London, W2 1PG, UK

    William P. Hanage

  3. Centre for Molecular Microbiology and Infection, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London, SW7 2AZ, UK

    Brian Robertson

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  1. Siouxsie Wiles
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Correspondence to Siouxsie Wiles.

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Related links

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DATABASES

Entrez Genome Project

Citrobacter rodentium

Escherichia coli

Helicobacter pylori

Legionella pneumophila

Listeria monocytogenes

Mycobacterium avium

Mycobacterium bovis

Mycobacterium leprae

Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium

Streptococcus pyogenes

Vibrio cholerae

Yersinia pestis

FURTHER INFORMATION

William P. Hanage's homepage

Brian Robertson's homepage

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Wiles, S., Hanage, W., Frankel, G. et al. Modelling infectious disease — time to think outside the box?. Nat Rev Microbiol 4, 307–312 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro1386

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