Characterization of the mouse neuroinvasiveness of selected European strains of West Nile virus.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 24058590.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0074575 and PMC identifier 3776840.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
West Nile virus (WNV) has caused outbreaks and sporadic infections in Central, Eastern and Mediterranean Europe for over 45 years. Most strains responsible for the European and Mediterranean basin outbreaks are classified as lineage 1. In recent years, WNV strains belonging to lineage 1 and 2 have been causing outbreaks of neuroinvasive disease in humans in countries such as Italy, Hungary and Greece, while mass mortality among birds was not reported. This study characterizes three European strains of WNV isolated in Italy (FIN and Ita09) and Hungary (578/10) in terms of in vitro replication kinetics on neuroblastoma cells, LD50 values in C57BL/6 mice, median day mortality, cumulative mortality, concentration of virus in the brain and spinal cord, and the response to infection in the brain. Overall, the results indicate that strains circulating in Europe belonging to both lineage 1 and 2 are highly virulent and that Ita09 and 578/10 are more neurovirulent compared to the FIN strain.
Medical subject headings
- Nervous System
- West Nile Fever
- West Nile virus