Journal Entry #7: Typhoid Animal Model

Newspaper article: Animal Model of Typhoid Fever Could Lead to Better Vaccines 

Article by: ScienceDaily 

http://npx.autismspot.com/lab_mouse.jpg

Summary of the Article

Since mice show symptoms related to humans, and since they respond positively to immunization, mice models can be used to develop vaccines for typhoid fever. However, prior to the work done by Columbia University researchers, there were no animal models for studying responses to typhoid. Researchers from Columbia University developed the first mouse model to respond to typhoid as mice do not develop this fever due to a receptor in their intestines. The team hopes that their model will increase progress towards developing better vaccines.

Analysis

The article clearly and concisely discusses the new mouse model used by researchers to better study typhoid. Everyone should be able to understand most of the article as the article does not use a lot of scientific jargon. However, it would be for the reader’s benefit if the article explained immune cell receptors in a bit more detail. The article appears to unbiased because it reports the discovery and findings of the researchers in a factual way.

Thoughts and Opinion

I have a personal connection to this article because a few years ago I went to India for a vacation and was infected with typhoid. After reading this article, I was surprised to learn that over 220 000 deaths / year are caused by this infection. Luckily, I recovered within about 2 weeks of getting the infection and did not suffer too much from the infection.

After reading the article I wanted to learn more about immune cell receptors and so I looked it up on Wikipedia. From this, I learned that immune receptors are protein molecules (receptor), usually on the surface of the cell membrane, which bind with a substance and cause an immune system response. There are also many types of immune receptors; the receptor mentioned in the article is a toll-like receptor (TLR) which is a type of a signalling pattern recognition receptor (PRR) which signals an immune system response. This knowledge helps me better understand the part of the article that said that the toll-like receptor 11 (TLR11) recognizes molecules of microbes, such as typhoid and triggers an immune system response. This explains why mice are not affected by the typhoid bacteria; their cells have TLR11 which causes the immune system to fight of the bacteria before it infects the mouse.

"Animal Model of Typhoid Fever Could Lead to Better Vaccines." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 25 Oct. 2012. Web. 26 Oct. 2012. <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121025122222.htm>.

"Immune Receptor." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 5 May 2012. Web. 26 Oct. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immune_receptor>.

"Pattern Recognition Receptors." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Oct. 2012. Web. 26 Oct. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattern_recognition_receptors>.

"Receptor (biochemistry)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Oct. 2012. Web. 26 Oct. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Receptor_(biochemistry)>.