engleski

Mumps virus infection of guinea pigs

Mumps is an acute respiratory infection transmitted by aerosol and respiratory droplets, which can be prevented with a vaccine. It is caused by the mumps virus (MuV), a member of the Paramyxoviridae family of non-segmented enveloped RNA viruses. Mumps is a vaccine-preventable disease. In the last decade, we have encountered repeated outbreaks of mumps in a highly vaccinated population, which calls into question the effectiveness of available vaccines. Animal models are needed to investigate the causes of outbreaks and to understand the pathogenesis of mumps virus (MuV). The search for an animal model for mumps has been going on for decades. Experimentally, only primates can show symptoms of the disease after MuV infection. The lack of suitable small- animal models for studying the pathogenesis and development of vaccines is one of the most serious obstacles to research progress. The aim of this research was to determine and confirm the existence of mumps-guinea pig interaction after intranasal infection (the natural route of MuV transmission) and evaluate the humoral and cellular immune responses in infected animals. In this study, we examined the humoral and cellular response of guinea pigs after intranasal infection with MuV. After infection, we observed a significant viral replication in infected tissues for up to 4 d.p.i. and seroconversion in infected animals, without clinical signs of disease. Activation of cellular immunity was also recorded in the first 7 days after infection, which was more pronounced in BALF than in whole blood analysis by flow cytometry. The obtained results clearly show that intranasally infected animals with MuV develop a detectable antibody titer during 28 days. It was also shown for the first time that MuV-infected guinea pigs, develop moderate to severe bronchopneumonia on day 28 post-infection. Our study demonstrates that guinea pigs are highly susceptible to MuV infection.

mumps virus, guinea pig, host-pathogen interaction

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