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Large animal models for vaccine development and testing
Volker Gerdts1, Heather L Wilson1, Francois Meurens1
1Volker Gerdts, DVM, PhD is the Associate Director of Research at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre, University of Saskatchewan. Heather Wilson, PhD, is a research scientist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre, University of Saskatchewan. Francois Meurens, PhD, is a Professor at Oniris Nantes, Nantes Atlantic National College of Veterinary Medicine, Food Science and Engineering in Nantes, France. Sylvia van Drunen Littel-van den Hurk, PhD, is a senior research scientist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre, and a Professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at the University of Saskatchewan. Don Wilson, DVM, is the Clinical Research Program Manager at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre, University of Saskatchewan. Stewart Walker, DVM, is a clinical research veterinarian at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre, University of Saskatchewan. Colette Wheler, DVM, MVSc, is a clinical research veterinarian at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre, University of Saskatchewan. Hugh Townsend, DVM, MSc, is the Contract Research & Core Activities Program Manager at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre, University of Saskatchewan. Andrew Potter, PhD, is the Director and CEO at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre, University of Saskatchewan.
Abstract:
The development of human vaccines continues to rely on the use of animals for research. Regulatory authorities require novel vaccine candidates to undergo preclinical assessment in animal models before being permitted to enter the clinical phase in human subjects. Substantial progress has been made in recent years in reducing and replacing the number of animals used for preclinical vaccine research through the use of bioinformatics and computational biology to design new vaccine candidates. However, the ultimate goal of a new vaccine is to instruct the immune system to elicit an effective immune response against the pathogen of interest, and no alternatives to live animal use currently exist for evaluation of this response. Studies identifying the mechanisms of immune protection; determining the optimal route and formulation of vaccines; establishing the duration and onset of immunity, as well as the safety and efficacy of new vaccines, must be performed in a living system. Importantly, no single animal model provides all the information required for advancing a new vaccine through the preclinical stage, and research over the last two decades has highlighted that large animals more accurately predict vaccine outcome in humans than do other models. Here we review the advantages and disadvantages of large animal models for human vaccine development and demonstrate that much of the success in bringing a new vaccine to market depends on choosing the most appropriate animal model for preclinical testing.
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