The use of mice lacking type I or both type I and type II interferon responses in research on hemorrhagic fever viruses. Part 2: Vaccine efficacy studies.

The use of mice lacking type I or both type I and type II interferon responses in research on hemorrhagic fever viruses. Part 2: Vaccine efficacy studies. Antiviral Res. 2020 Jan 22;:104702 Authors: Zivcec M, Spiropoulou CF, Spengler JR Abstract For more than 20 years, researchers have used laboratory mice lacking type I or both type I and II interferon (IFN) responses to study high-containment viruses that cause hemorrhagic fevers (HF) in humans. With the exception of Rift Valley fever virus, agents that cause viral HF in humans, such as Ebola and Lassa virus, do not cause disease in mature immunocompetent mice. In contrast, IFN-deficient mice typically develop severe or fatal disease when inoculated with these agents. The sensitivity of IFN-deficient mice to disease has led to their widespread use in biocontainment laboratories to assess the efficacy of novel vaccines against HF viruses, often without considering whether adaptive immune responses in IFN-deficient mice accurately mirror those in immunocompetent humans. Failure to recognize these questions may lead to inappropriate expectations of the predictive value of mouse experiments. In two invited articles, we investigate these questions. The present article reviews the use of IFN-deficient mice for assessing novel vaccines against HF viruses, including Ebola, Lassa, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever and Rift Valley fever viruses. A companion paper examines the general question ...
Source: Antiviral Research - Category: Virology Authors: Tags: Antiviral Res Source Type: research