In Vivo Model to Assess the Nasal Infection by Minor Group Rhinovirus

Rhinovirus primarily infects humans via nasal epithelial cells and is spread through the inhalation of shed progeny virus via micro-droplets containing the virus. A handful of studies have investigated the nasal mucosal responses to rhinovirus in experimentally infected healthy volunteers. There are also studies that have investigated the effect of antiviral drugs in reducing symptoms induced by rhinovirus infection. It is extremely expensive to test the antiviral drugs in human volunteers, and therefore having preclinical in vivo models is necessary to confirm the antiviral effect of the drugs prior to conducting clinical trials. The existing in vivo models for RV infection are focused on lung inflammation, which may be relevant to patients with chronic lung diseases, in whom rhinovirus causes lower respiratory tract infections. In this chapter, we describe a mouse model of rhinovirus infection, which shows self-limiting inflammation of the sinonasal mucosa.