# Developing immune reagents to increase the preclinical value of the ferret model

> **NIH NIH R03** · ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI · 2020 · $84,750

## Abstract

Project Summary
 The ferret, Mustela putorius furo, is the gold-standard animal model for studying the biology and
pathogenesis of influenza viruses. This small animal model has also been utilized to study the biology and
pathogenesis of other human respiratory viruses including respiratory syncytial virus, metapneumovirus,
measles virus, mumps virus, parainfluenza viruses, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-
CoV), and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). Ferret models of cystic fibrosis and
cigarette smoke-induced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have also been developed. The ferret
and human respiratory tracts share anatomic and physiological similarities, including: elongated trachea;
similar distribution of sialic acids which are receptors for some respiratory viruses; and similar pulmonary
physiology. The ferret model is amenable to non-terminal collection of nasal wash samples, oropharyngeal
swabs, and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) which allows assessment of immune responses and virus
replication at these respiratory mucosal sites. The average size and total blood volume of a ferret allows for
longitudinal assessment of serum and peripheral blood mononuclear cell responses. Thus, the ferret model is
amenable to the longitudinal collection of the same types of clinical samples collected from humans.
The ferret is an invaluable small animal model to investigate the pathobiology of respiratory tract disease
resulting from virus infection, and to study the efficacy of prophylactic vaccines and antiviral compounds to
prevent disease. However, the lack of an extensive repository of immunological reagents such as those
available for mouse or human studies is a common criticism of the ferret model. The significance of this project
is that it addresses this lack of immunological reagents, which is perceived as a critical barrier limiting the utility
of the ferret model, by developing novel monoclonal antibodies that are essential to establish new assays to
quantify B and T cell responses of ferrets. The overall goal of this project is to investigate the mucosal immune
responses of the ferret respiratory tract to improve the predictability and reproducibility of ferret studies that
model the immune responses of the human respiratory tract to infectious diseases or mucosal immunization.
Toward this goal, we propose to clone up to ten genes encoding specific ferret B or T cell markers, and then
develop corresponding recombinant proteins that will be used to immunize mice for the production of
monoclonal antibodies. Our newly developed monoclonal antibodies specific for ferret B and T cells will be
complemented with already commercially available immunological reagents to establish flow cytometry assays
and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) that will enable quantitative studies of the systemic and
mucosal immune responses of the ferret respiratory tract to infection or vaccination. We propo...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9831092
- **Project number:** 5R03AI142046-02
- **Recipient organization:** ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI
- **Principal Investigator:** Randy A. Albrecht
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $84,750
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-12-01 → 2021-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9831092

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9831092, Developing immune reagents to increase the preclinical value of the ferret model (5R03AI142046-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9831092. Licensed CC0.

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