[Experimental measles infection in rodents]

Area of Science:

• Virology
• Neuroscience
• Immunology

Context:

• Measles virus (MeV) can cause severe neurological complications.
• Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) is a rare, fatal complication of measles infection.
• Animal models are crucial for studying MeV pathogenesis and persistence.

Purpose:

• To investigate the susceptibility of newborn hamsters to different measles virus strains.
• To determine the potential for measles virus persistence in the hamster brain.
• To analyze the expression of measles virus proteins in infected hamster brains.

Summary:

• Intracerebral inoculation of the L-16 MeV strain caused acute meningoencephalitis and death in 85-100% of newborn hamsters, with infectious virus, antigen, and genome detected in the brain for over 30 days.
• The Lec strain, isolated from an SSPE patient, induced less severe disease and 40% mortality, with infectious virus detectable up to 20 days and genome up to 31 days post-inoculation.
• All measles virus structural proteins, except hemagglutinin, were expressed in L-16 infected brains, while all were expressed in Lec-infected brains. Long-term persistence (90-180 days) of both strains was not observed.

Impact:

• This study highlights the utility of the newborn hamster model for MeV neurovirulence research.
• Findings contribute to understanding MeV neuropathogenesis and the factors influencing viral persistence.
• Provides insights into host-virus interactions during measles virus infection of the central nervous system.