SCID AND THE STUDY OF PARASITIC DISEASE

Parasitic diseases remain a scourge of humans. Malaria alone causes mo re than a million deaths yearly, while helminths such as hookworm and ascaris infect more than a billion people worldwide. A key to understa nding these diseases is the study of the interaction between host and parasite. Animal models of disease have played a central role in the s tudy of these interactions. The severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID ) mouse has a genetic defect lending to an inability to generate the a ntigen-specific receptors of the immune system, leading to a complete lack of the T and B cells of the specific immune system. The SCID mous e has proved to be a powerful tool in the study of host-parasite inter actions and the pathogenesis of a variety of parasites. lit this revie w we discuss several of the methods that utilize SCID mice in the stud y of parasitic disease and provide examples of specific diseases in wh ich the use of the SCID mouse has generated new insights into the host -parasite interaction.