# Characterization of an infant rabbit model of bacillary dysentery

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA · 2021 · $197,146

## Abstract

Abstract
Dysentery affects hundreds of millions of people in the world each year and is characterized by damage to the
intestinal tissue and rupture of blood vessels, so that visible quantities of blood are lost with defecation.
Dysentery can result from viral, bacterial, or parasitic infections. The intestinal pathogen Shigella flexneri is the
causative agent of bacillary dysentery and is responsible for more than 250 million cases of dysentery
annually, resulting in more than 200,000 deaths. A major challenge in combating bacillary dysentery is the lack
of a small-animal model that recapitulates the symptoms observed in infected individuals. Our group has
recently uncovered that similar to humans, infant rabbits infected with S. flexneri experienced severe immune
cell infiltration, massive ulceration of the colonic mucosa, and bloody diarrhea. In this application, we propose
to explore the infant rabbit model with wild type and mutant S. flexneri through (1) characterization of bacterial
burden and associated histopathology (Aim1) and characterization of host gene expression profiles (Aim 2).
The characterization of the infant rabbit model proposed in this application will provide critical molecular tools
for understanding the mechanisms supporting bacillary dysentery in humans.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10203818
- **Project number:** 5R21AI149384-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
- **Principal Investigator:** HERVE F AGAISSE
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $197,146
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-07-01 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10203818

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10203818, Characterization of an infant rabbit model of bacillary dysentery (5R21AI149384-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10203818. Licensed CC0.

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