NIH-Owned Chimpanzee Research Resource at the SNPRC

描述(申请人提供)：黑猩猩与人类在遗传、生理、生化和免疫学方面的相似之处使它们成为针对人类健康的许多方面的独特生物医学研究模型，其中包括开发传染病(例如，乙肝病毒、丙型肝炎病毒、艾滋病毒)的预防和治疗、测试专门为人类设计的药物的效果，以及人源化单抗的安全性和有效性。该项目的总体目标是维持NCRR拥有的由209只黑猩猩组成的研究资源，并对其进行管理，以服务于国家生物医学研究需求。我们将追求以下具体目标：1)保持一个稳定、健康、定义明确的黑猩猩种群，并将它们用于研究；2)保持一群特征良好的持续感染乙肝、丙型肝炎病毒或艾滋病毒的黑猩猩，用于肝炎和艾滋病的研究和测试新治疗方法的有效性；3)从所有209只黑猩猩的肝脏样本，包括mRNA和microRNA，以及从36只慢性感染丙型肝炎病毒或已清除感染的黑猩猩的PBMC样本中，开发独特的全序列转录本来源；4)开发对生物医学研究具有重要意义的生理特征的纵向定量测量，并结合目标3的序列数据和健康状况对其进行分析；5)开发一个数据库，其中包含关于黑猩猩的信息以及根据目标3和4获得的数据，并将其提供给国家生物医学研究界用于研究目的和选择实验对象；6)建立一个方案，教育公众认识黑猩猩在生物医学研究中的重要性。通过实现这些目标，我们将建立一个在所有黑猩猩研究资源中独一无二的黑猩猩资源，使研究人员能够首次在实验设计和基因组分析中利用单个黑猩猩的基因组序列数据。此外，该教育计划将有助于公众了解在生物医学研究中对黑猩猩的照顾和使用，以及对资源的需求，如本申请中提出的资源。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The genetic, physiological, biochemical, and immunological similarities of chimpanzees to humans make them unique models for biomedical research directed at many aspects of human health including, among others, developing preventions and treatments for infectious diseases (e.g., HBV, HCV, HIV), testing the effects of drugs specifically designed for use in humans, and testing the safety and efficacy of humanized monoclonal antibodies. The overall objective of this project is to maintain an NCRR-owned research resource consisting of 209 chimpanzees and to manage it to serve the national biomedical research needs. We will pursue the following specific aims: 1) To maintain a stable, healthy, well defined population of chimpanzees and to make them available for research; 2) To maintain a cohort of well characterized chimpanzees persistently infected with HBV, HCV or HIV for research on hepatitis and AIDS and for testing the efficacy of new therapeutic approaches; 3) To develop a unique resource of fully sequenced transcriptomes from liver samples of all 209 chimpanzees, including mRNAs and microRNAs, and from PBMC samples of a subset of 36 chimpanzees that are chronically infected with HCV or that have cleared the infection; 4) To develop longitudinal quantitative measures of physiological characteristics that are of importance to biomedical research and to analyze them in relation to sequence data from Aim 3 and in relation to health status; 5) To develop a data base that contains information about the chimpanzees and the data obtained under Aims 3 and 4, and to make it available to the national biomedical research community for research purposes and for selection of experimental subjects; 6) To establish a program for educating the public as to the importance of chimpanzees in biomedical research. Via fulfilling these aims, we will establish a chimpanzee resource that is unique among all chimpanzee research resources in enabling investigators for the first time to exploit genome sequence data from individual chimpanzees in experimental design and in genomic analyses. In addition, the educational program will contribute to the public's understanding of the care and use of chimpanzees in biomedical research, and the need for resources such as the one proposed in this application.