Marmoset Studies for Preclinical Toxicology

Marmosets have been widely used as translational disease models in neuroscience and autoimmune disorders including Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease and multiple sclerosis, and as animal models in reproductive biology, inflammatory disorders and behavioral research. Marmosets also have distinct advantages for use in preclinical toxicology and infectious disease studies.

Marmosets for Preclinical Toxicology

Marmosets are an increasingly popular animal model for early toxicology and preclinical programs due to their small size and their predictive accuracy of human adverse events.

One advantage of the marmoset as a nonhuman primate (NHP) model for toxicology and safety studies is their small size. The amount of compound required for marmoset studies is 10-15-fold smaller compared to a 10 kg dog, a distinct advantage when the amount of compound available is limited or expensive to manufacture. This reduction can save significant amounts of time and money that can potentially shorten development time and move a drug to clinical studies faster.

The marmoset is also ideal for use in the safety and efficacy testing of biologics such as antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), and cytokines where the biologic does not bind the cell surface receptor or target of lower species. Marmosets may therefore be better suited for pharmacokinetic (PK) and toxicology testing for biologic drug candidates.

Marmosets as MERS Animal Model

MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) first isolated in 2012, is an emerging viral threat that can cause severe human respiratory infection with high fatality rates. Since many aspects of the transmission are poorly understood, and since there are no vaccines or antiviral therapeutics currently available, animal models that mimic the severe respiratory disease in humans are needed to study viral pathogenesis and transmission, as well as for testing vaccines and antivirals against MERS.

Marmosets have been used in infectious disease research as NHP models for viral and bacterial agents due to their ability to mimic human disease progression. They have recently been used to demonstrate severe MERS-CoV infection comparable to that observed in humans, including progressive severe pneumonia. This new marmoset MERS-CoV model is currently thought to be the best suited animal model to test MERS therapeutics and potential vaccines.

Learn More About Marmoset Animal Models at IITRI

We have experience conducting repeat dose GLP toxicology studies in Marmosets at IITRI.
Contact us to discuss your marmoset preclinical toxicology or infectious disease study requirements today!