Development of Two Mouse Models for Vaccine Evaluation against Cryptosporidiosis

Cryptosporidiosis was shown a decade ago to be a major contributor to morbidity and mortality of diarrheal disease in children in low-income countries. A serious obstacle to develop and evaluate immunogens and vaccines to control this disease is the lack of well-characterized immunocompetent rodent models. Here, we optimized and compared two mouse models for the evaluation of vaccines: the Cryptosporidium tyzzeri model, which is convenient for screening large numbers of potential mixtures of immunogens, and the Cryptosporidium parvum-infected mouse pretreated with interferon gamma-neutralizing monoclonal antibody.

Automated summary

Cryptosporidiosis has been identified as a major cause of morbidity and mortality in children with diarrhea in low-income countries. One of the main challenges in developing vaccines to control this disease is the lack of well-characterized immunocompetent rodent models. In this study, two mouse models were optimized and compared for vaccine evaluation, providing valuable references for future research.