Tree Shrew as a New Animal Model for the Study of Dengue Virus

Frontiers in Immunology

Qiangming Sun¹  Liming Jiang¹  Caixia Lu² 

[1] Development on Severe Infectious Diseases, Kunming, China;Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, and Peking Union Medical College, Kunming, China;State Key Laboratory for Managing Biotic and Chemical Threats to the Quality and Safety of Agro-products, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China;;Yunnan Key Laboratory of Vaccine Research &

关键词: dengue virus;    tree shrew;    animal model;    dengue fever;    viremia;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fimmu.2021.621164

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Dengue virus is a significant public health threat worldwide; however, the pathogenesis of dengue disease remains poorly understood due to lack of appropriate small animal models. Tree shrews are an emerging experimental animal model for the study of human diseases due to their resemblance of genetic characteristics to primate animals. Herein we report that dengue infection in tree shrews elicits resemble clinical symptoms as in humans. Dengue fever (△2°C> normal body temperature) developed in ~22% healthy Chinese tree shrews from 2 through 33 days after infection with a low dose (1 ∗ 104 PFU/animal) of dengue virus serotype 2 or 3 intravenously or subcutaneously. The dengue genomic RNA and neutralizing antibodies were detected in ~78% of animals at days 7 and 15 post infection respectively. The serum levels of liver enzymes including aspartate transaminase, alanine aminotransferase and alkaline phosphatase were elevated with peaks at day 7 after infection. Modest thrombocytopenia and a slight decrease in the white blood cell count were observed. Intriguingly, although viral RNA was barely detectable in the liver by 48 days after infection, it was still evident in the brain. The intra-brain bleeding lesions in the intravenous infection group were more severe than those in the subcutaneous infection group. Our data demonstrate that primary dengue virus infection in tree shrews causes resemble clinical disease as in humans and thus tree shrews may be a suitable model for the study of dengue disease pathogenesis.

【 授权许可】

Unknown