Dengue Fever

Chimpanzees do not appear to become ill from dengue infection. As with many other viral diseases that afflict humans, chimpanzees can harbor the virus, but it does not cause a similar illness in them. (1) As such, “Doctors [still] have no specific drugs to treat dengue fever,” despite years of subjecting chimpanzees to its research. (2)

Dengue (pronounced deng - ay) fever is a viral disease that is endemic to tropical and sub-tropical areas. It is transmitted by mosquitoes that carry any one of four viral strains for the disease. (3) Dengue fever used to be called “break-bone fever” because it can cause severe joint and muscle pain. Other symptoms include an extremely high fever, severe headache, rash, pain behind the eyes, nausea, and vomiting. According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), “there is no specific treatment for classic dengue fever” and with minimal treatment—bed rest, fluids, and non-aspirin pain relievers—“most people recover within 2 weeks.” (4)

Research using chimpanzees

One of the leading researchers in dengue fever for NIAID is Dr. Ching-Juh Lai. Dr. Lai’s “goal is to define the mechanisms that allow the virus to reproduce, or replicate, using cultured cells and animal models.” (5) From 2000 to 2008, Dr. Lai used chimpanzees in dengue research under grant 1Z01AI000682 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). (6)

Under the grant “Recovery of Chimpanzee Dengue Virus Neutralizing Antibody,” in 2002 Dr. Lai’s research required chimpanzees to undergo intrahepatic inoculation [inoculation directly into the liver] of the dengue virus followed by regular blood-draws and also several bone marrow biopsies. (7) The chimpanzees used in this research were housed at BIOQUAL, Inc., a private laboratory in Rockville, Maryland. On their website, NIAID states that, “Much of the basic research on dengue fever is done in labs at NIAID,” which are located in Bethesda, Maryland. (8)

Continuing his research in 2008 under the grant “Humanized Antibodies Derived from Chimpanzee Fabs that Neutralize Flaviviruses,” Dr. Lai used “monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) from chimpanzees infected with multiple dengue virus serotypes.” (9) In addition to dengue fever research, this study also mentioned using chimpanzees for Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) research.


Sources

(1) Harrison VR, Eckels KH, et al. 1977 Virulence and immunogenicity of a temperature-sensitive dengue-2 virus in lower primates. Infect Immun. Oct;18(1):151-6.

(2) “New Understanding of Dengue Virus Points Way to Possible Therapies for Dengue Fever.” NIAID News Release, Wednesday, April 22, 2009.

(3) How Dengue Virus Matures and Becomes Infectious. NIAID Dengue Fever Fact Sheet, February 19, 2009.

(4) Dengue Fever Treatment. NIAID Dengue Fever Fact Sheet, June 5, 2007.

(5) Dengue Research in NIAID Labs. NIAID Dengue Fever Fact Sheet, March 18, 2009.

(6) Computer Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects (CRISP) database

(7) Men R, Yamashiro T, et al. 2004 Identification of chimpanzee Fab fragments by repertoire cloning and production of a full-length humanized immunoglobulin G1 antibody that is highly efficient for neutralization of dengue type 4 virus. J Virol May;78(9):4665-74.

(8) NIAID’s Role in Dengue Fever Research. NIAID Dengue Fever Fact Sheet, November 4, 2008.

(9) CRISP database

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