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Visualization of Chikungunya Virus Infection in vitro and in vivo
33 Pages Posted: 11 Jun 2019
More...Abstract
Background: Chikungunya virus (CHIKV), a mosquito-borne alphavirus, has become a global public health concern. The lack of effective vaccines and antiviral agents are largely attributed to the elusive infection and dissemination dynamics in vivo.
Methods: In this study, we designed and developed a novel, replication-competent, CHIKV reporter virus (CHIKV-iRFP) encoding a near infrared fluorescent protein (iRFP) for in vivo imaging.
Findings: In vitro and in vivo characterization demonstrated that CHIKV-iRFP retained similar replication and virulence phenotype to the parental CHIKV. Neonatal BABL/c mice and IFNAR-/- A129 mice displayed highly susceptive to CHIKV-iRFP infection. Following intracranial (i.c.) inoculation, CHIKV-iRFP efficiently replicated and disseminated into whole body, resulting in rapid death in a age-dependent manner. Remarkably, upon i.c. inoculation, CHIKV-iRFP readily disseminated from footpad to the head and whole skeleton, with a specific tropism for bone marrow.
Interpretation: Taken together, this novel reporter virus provides a powerful tool to visualize CHIKV replication and to test the efficacy of vaccines and antiviral therapeutics in a noninvasive and real-time manner.
Funding: The National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFA0507201), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81572003).
Declaration of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Ethical Approval: The experimental protocols were approved by the Animal Experiment Committee of Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, China.
Keywords: Chikungunya Virus, iRFP, live imaging, mice
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