Abstract
Influenza viruses are seasonally recurring human pathogens. Vaccines and antiviral drugs are available for influenza. However, the viruses, which often change themselves via antigenic drift and shift, demand constant efforts to update vaccine antigens every year and develop new agents with broad-spectrum antiviral efficacy. An animal model is critical for such efforts. While most human influenza viruses are unable to kill BALB/c mice, some strains have been shown to kill DBA/2 mice without prior adaptation. Therefore, in this study, we explored the feasibility of employing DBA/2 mice as a model in the development of anti-influenza drugs. Unlike the BALB/c strain, DBA/2 mice were highly susceptible and could be killed with a relatively low titer (50% DBA/2 lethal dose = 102.83 plaque-forming units) of the A/Korea/01/2009 virus (2009 pandemic H1N1 virus). When treated with a neuraminidase inhibitor, oseltamivir phosphate, infected DBA/2 mice survived until 14 days post-infection. The reduced morbidity of the infected DBA/2 mice was also consistent with the oseltamivir treatment. Taking these data into consideration, we propose that the DBA/2 mouse is an excellent animal model to evaluate antiviral efficacy against influenza infection and can be further utilized for combination therapies or bioactivity models of existing and newly developed anti-influenza drugs.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 866-871 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Journal of Microbiology |
Volume | 51 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2013 Dec |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This study was supported by grants from the Korea Healthcare Technology R&D Project of the Ministry of Health & Welfare (Grant No. A103001), the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (Grant No. 2007-0052178), and the Hallym University Specialization Fund (HRF-S-41).
Keywords
- DBA/2 mouse
- adaptation
- animal model
- antiviral
- influenza virus
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Microbiology
- Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology