Nlrc3 Knockout Mice Showed Renal Pathological Changes After HTNV Infection

Hantaan virus (HTNV) infects humans and causes hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS). The development of well-characterized animal models of HFRS could accelerate the testing of vaccine candidates and therapeutic agents and provide a useful tool for studying the pathogenesis of HFRS. Because NLRC3 has multiple immunoregulatory roles, we investigated the susceptibility of Nlrc3 mice to HTNV infection in order to establish a new model of HFRS. Nlrc3 mice developed weight loss, renal hemorrhage, and tubule dilation after HTNV infection, recapitulating many clinical symptoms of human HFRS. Moreover, infected Nlrc3 mice showed higher viral loads in serum, spleen, and kidney than wild type C57BL/6 (WT) mice, and some of them manifested more hematological disorders and significant pathological changes within multiple organs than WT mice. Our results identify that HTNV infected Nlrc3 mice can develop clinical symptoms and pathological changes resembling patients with HFRS, suggesting a new model for studying the pathogenesis and testing of candidate vaccines and therapeutics.