Experimental infection of rabbits with genotype 3 hepatitis E virus produced both chronicity and kidney injury

Dear Editor, We read with great interest the elegant work of Sayed et al,1 which established a mouse model for chronic hepatitis E virus (HEV) infections. The study showed that mice with humanised livers could be infected with both HEV-1 and HEV-3 and develop a chronic viral infection. The establishment of this model meets the urgent need for a research animal model to study chronic hepatitis E infection as increasing cases of such infections have been reported in immunocompromised patients.2 We have recently reported on a chronic hepatitis E case caused by HEV-4 in a woman with nephritic syndrome.3 HEV RNA and antigen were detected in the patient's urine and HEV RNA-positive urine successfully induced infection in Cynomolgus monkeys.3 We agree with the claim made by Sayed et al1 that their model may allow the unravelling of the potential...
Source: Gut - Category: Gastroenterology Authors: Tags: PostScript Source Type: research