A Multimodal Imaging-Supported Down Syndrome Mouse Model of RSV Infection

Individuals with Down syndrome (DS) are more prone to develop severe respiratory tract infections. Although a RSV infection has a high clinical impact and severe outcome in individuals with DS, no vaccine nor effective therapeutics are available. Any research into infection pathophysiology or prophylactic and therapeutic antiviral strategies in the specific context of DS would greatly benefit this patient population, but currently such relevant animal models are lacking. This study aimed to develop and characterize the first mouse model of RSV infection in a DS-specific context. Ts65Dn mice and wild type littermates were inoculated with a bioluminescence imaging-enabled recombinant human RSV to longitudinally track viral replication in host cells throughout infection progression. This resulted in an active infection in the upper airways and lungs with similar viral load in Ts65Dn mice and euploid mice. Flow cytometric analysis of leukocytes in lungs and spleen demonstrated immune alterations with lower CD8+ T cells and B-cells in Ts65Dn mice. Overall, our study presents a novel DS-specific mouse model of hRSV infection and shows that potential in using the Ts65Dn preclinical model to study immune-specific responses of RSV in the context of DS and supports the need for models representing the pathological development.