Enhanced Cough, Animal Models

Under specific pathophysiological circumstances, cough becomes a chronic condition. Unfortunately, apart from drugs that treat the underlying diseases that cause the cough symptom, medicines directly oriented to reduce or abolish the cough reflex are limited to narcotic or narcotic-like drugs. The poor availability of antitussive medications is due to many causes but mainly to the poor understanding of the molecular mechanisms that cause and maintain chronic cough. Most of the mechanistic information on cough has been generated from animal models in which there is little or no airway pathology. It is essential then to develop animal models of chronic cough that reflect the disease in man. Here we described diverse animal models of enhanced coughing in guinea pigs, cats, dogs, pigs, and rabbits with airway inflammation produced by ovalbumin sensitization and challenge, exposure to cigarette smoke, sulfur dioxide, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, and ozone.