Journal Article

Immunocompetent mouse model for Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus

Feldmann, Heinz, Smith, Brian, Leventhal, Shanna, Feldmann, Friederike, Hawman, David W, Okumura, Atsushi, Meade-White, Kimberly, Scott, Dana

2021

Overview

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a severe tick-borne febrile illness with wide geographic distribution. CCHF is caused by infection with the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) and case fatality rates can be as high as 30%. Despite causing severe disease in humans, our understanding of the host and viral determinants of CCHFV pathogenesis are limited. A major limitation in the investigation of CCHF has been the lack of suitable small animal models. Wild-type mice are resistant to clinical isolates of CCHFV and consequently, mice must be deficient in type I interferon responses to study the more severe aspects of CCHFV. We report here a mouse-adapted variant of CCHFV that recapitulates in adult, immunocompetent mice the severe CCHF observed in humans. This mouse-adapted variant of CCHFV significantly improves our ability to study host and viral determinants of CCHFV-induced disease in a highly tractable mouse model.

• Publisher: eLife Sciences Publications Ltd,eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
• Subject: Adaptation / Adaptive immunity / Animal models / Animals / CCHFV / Clinical isolates / Crimean hemorrhagic fever / Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus / Disease Models, Animal / Female / Fever / Geographical distribution / Hemorrhage / Hemorrhagic Fever Virus, Crimean-Congo - physiology / Hemorrhagic Fever, Crimean - immunology / Immunocompetence / Immunology and Inflammation / Infections / Infectious diseases / Interferon / Interferon Type I - deficiency / Liver / Male / Mice / Microbiology and Infectious Disease / mouse model / Rodents / Viruses