{"doi":"10.3389/fitd.2021.778724","title":"Advances in Preclinical Platforms of Loa loa for Filarial Neglected Tropical Disease Drug and Diagnostics Research","abstract":"<jats:p>The tropical disease, loiasis, caused by the filarial parasite, <jats:italic>Loa loa</jats:italic>, has gained prominence in global public health as a cause of excess mortality and a barrier to the elimination of the related prioritized neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis, within Central Africa. There are no effective drug cures or vaccines available to treat loiasis safely. Here we review recent advances in loiasis preclinical platform technologies, including novel <jats:italic>in vitro</jats:italic> culturing systems, animal models and innovations in experimental infections of the <jats:italic>L. loa</jats:italic> vector, <jats:italic>Chrysops</jats:italic>, that have facilitated access to all <jats:italic>L. loa</jats:italic> filarial life-cycle stages. We detail applications of these new model systems in anti-filarial drug screening, diagnostic development, immunology, and pathophysiology research. Finally, we provide an overview of how loiasis preclinical platforms may be further utilized in translational medicine applications to support the development of much needed new interventions against filarial NTDs.</jats:p>","journal":"Frontiers in Tropical Diseases","year":2021,"id":651539,"datarank":0.29188652235829704,"base_score":1.9459101490553132,"endowment":1.9459101490553132,"self_citation_contribution":0.29188652235829704,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.29188652235829704,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":6,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1699277,"name":"Valerine Chawa Chunda","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1699278,"name":"Fanny Fri Fombad","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1699279,"name":"Abdel Jélil Njouendou","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1699280,"name":"Narcisse Victor T. Gandjui","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":703749,"name":"Manuel Ritter","orcid":"0000-0001-8667-2067","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1699281,"name":"Peter A. Enyong","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1081755,"name":"Charles Mackenzie","orcid":"0000-0003-4628-8188","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":856147,"name":"Mark J. Taylor","orcid":"0000-0001-5161-4182","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":680582,"name":"Achim Hoerauf","orcid":"0000-0002-8671-3831","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":793928,"name":"Joseph D. Turner","orcid":"0000-0002-2185-5476","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":703745,"name":"Samuel Wanji","orcid":"0000-0003-0022-8366","position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"resolved":true,"title":"Advances in Preclinical Platforms of Loa loa for Filarial Neglected Tropical Disease Drug and Diagnostics Research","abstract":"<jats:p>The tropical disease, loiasis, caused by the filarial parasite, <jats:italic>Loa loa</jats:italic>, has gained prominence in global public health as a cause of excess mortality and a barrier to the elimination of the related prioritized neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis, within Central Africa. There are no effective drug cures or vaccines available to treat loiasis safely. Here we review recent advances in loiasis preclinical platform technologies, including novel <jats:italic>in vitro</jats:italic> culturing systems, animal models and innovations in experimental infections of the <jats:italic>L. loa</jats:italic> vector, <jats:italic>Chrysops</jats:italic>, that have facilitated access to all <jats:italic>L. loa</jats:italic> filarial life-cycle stages. We detail applications of these new model systems in anti-filarial drug screening, diagnostic development, immunology, and pathophysiology research. Finally, we provide an overview of how loiasis preclinical platforms may be further utilized in translational medicine applications to support the development of much needed new interventions against filarial NTDs.</jats:p>","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":1.9459101490553132,"endowment":1.9459101490553132,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"38654889","pmcid":"PMC7615857","openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W3213030090","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research","grant_id":"NC/M00175X/1","title":null},{"funder_name":"National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research","grant_id":"NC/S001131/1","title":null},{"funder_name":"European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP)","grant_id":"TMA2019SFP-2814","title":null},{"funder_name":"Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft","grant_id":"","title":null},{"funder_name":"Wellcome Trust","grant_id":"","title":null},{"funder_name":"Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation","grant_id":"","title":null}],"total_grants":6,"fwci":0.1859,"citation_percentile":0.52585761,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2022,"count":1},{"year":2023,"count":1},{"year":2024,"count":1},{"year":2025,"count":2},{"year":2026,"count":1}],"oa_status":"gold","license":"cc-by","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fitd.2021.778724/pdf","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fitd.2021.778724/pdf","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fitd.2021.778724/full","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fitd.2021.778724","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38654889","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3396-9275","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/7615857","host_type":"repository"}],"fields_of_study":["Parasitic Diseases Research and Treatment","Parasites and Host Interactions","Insect symbiosis and bacterial influences"],"mesh_terms":[],"keywords":["Loa loa","Lymphatic filariasis","Onchocerciasis","Neglected tropical diseases","Tropical disease","Filariasis","Disease","Medicine","Immunology","Biology","Pathology","Helminths","Loa","Neglected Tropical Disease","Loiasis"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":0,"sdg_label":"Good health and well-being"}],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[{"name":"doi"}],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-08-10T09:54:20.830278Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}