China's first animal model of SARS has been established in the
Animal Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Medical
Sciences. The model uses rhesus monkeys to find SARS vaccines and
medicines, as the animal's pathological changes to SARS are very
similar to human beings.
Qin Chuan, vice director of the Animal Research Institute of the
Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical
College, and his research team developed the animal model. They
found the rhesus monkey is an ideal replacement for human beings in
SARS research. And they have applied for a Chinese
patent.?
Under the help of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and
Prevention, Qin and his team inoculated the SARS virus, isolated
from SARS patients, to 15 rhesus monkeys through nasal cavities.
Two or three days after the inoculation, all the monkeys had a
fever which lasted for about four days; five days after the
inoculation, the DNA of SARS virus was found in the experiment
samples of some monkeys; seven days passed when the DNA of SARS
virus was isolated from four monkey's experiment samples; 10 days
passed, and the DNA was found in all of the samples; and 17 days
passed that all the monkeys' SARS virus antibodies in blood serum
were positive.?
The experiments also found that the monkeys' lungs had
pneumonia, dropsy, structural damage, bleeding and vascular hyaline
degeneration separately in 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 days after the
virus inoculation. Meanwhile, keratin and immunity organization
coloration found epithelia, macrophages and lymphocytes in
infiltrative cells. After 30 days, the lungs of monkeys caught
fibrosis. All the above show a plenty of similarities to human
beings in pathological changes once infect SARS virus.
Qin added that the rhesus monkey is also like human beings in
immunity responses of body fluid and toxin discharges.
(China.org.cn by Feng Yikun, August 19, 2003)