Animals, chimeric

Chimeric DNA molecules are introduced into cells to make transfected cells or into the fertilized oocyte to make transgenic animals. 

More recently, recombinant antibodies (mostly IgGs) have been produced in the milk of transgenic animals [21,22]. In particular, one study with transgenic mice has shown that it is possible to produce a porcine chimeric IgA that can form dimers in the presence of the J chain [23]. However, the production of fully assembled slgA has yet to be reported. 

In models of MND, therapeutic manipulations, manipulation of expression of selected genes in specific cell populations [15, 16], creation of chimeric animals to test whether abnormalities are cell autonomous [17], administration of trophic factors to prevent trophic cell death [18-20] and testing of a variety of drug therapies [21-24] have been used to try to ameliorate phenotypes and thus provide insights into disease mechanisms and potential treatment strategies [1, 3, 4, 15, 25, 26]. Results of these studies are being used to design novel therapies to be tested in clinical trials in humans. 

WILLIAMS, C.E., GROTEWOLD, E., Differences between plant and animal Myb domains are fundamental for DNA binding activity and chimeric Myb domains have novel DNA-binding specificities, J. Biol. Chem., 1997, 272, 563-571. 

Chimeric Antibodies The first generation is the chimeric antibodies (chimeric comes from the word Chimera, a Greek mythology beast made of three animals a lion, a snake, and a goat). This type of antibody consists of both murine and human parts. The murine Fv fragments are retained and linked to the Fc fragment of human IgG. An example of the chimeric antibody is ReoPro, which prevents blood clots by binding to a receptor on platelets. 

Table 2.2. Pharmacologic effects obtained with chimeric peptides in animal models.

Chimeric peptide Dose Mode of administration Animal model Effect... 

Gold HK, Garabedian HD, Dinsmore RE, et al. Restoration of coronary flow in myocardial infarction by intravenous chimeric 7E3 antibody without exogenous plasminogen activators. Observations in animals and humans. Circulation 1997 95(7) 1755-1759. 

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