title: Early cytokine mRNA expression profiles predict Morbillivirus disease outcome in ferrets.
abstract: Severe immunosuppression is a hallmark of Morbillivirus infections. To study the underlying mechanisms, we have developed a ferret model of canine distemper virus infection. The model reproduces all clinical signs of measles, but the lack of ferret-specific reagents has limited the characterization of the cellular immune response. Towards this, we cloned ferret cytokines and established semi-quantitative real-time PCR assays. To demonstrate the utility of these assays we compared the cytokine profiles elicited by lethal and non-lethal strains during the prodromal phase. We observed a general lack of cytokine induction in animals that later succumbed to the disease, whereas survivors mounted a robust and sustained response. The newly developed cytokine assays strengthen and expand the ferret model not only for Morbillivirus pathogenesis studies but also for several other human respiratory viruses including influenza and SARS.
authors.affiliation: INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier, University of Quebec, 531, boul. des Prairies, Laval, Quebec, Canada H7V 1B7.
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Svitek
authors.forename: Veronika
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: von Messling
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001773:Blood Cells / Q000276:immunology; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D016207:Cytokines / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004217:Distemper Virus, Canine / Q000276:immunology* / Q000502:physiology; D005289:Ferrets; D015870:Gene Expression; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D018185:Morbillivirus Infections / Q000276:immunology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000821:virology*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D016019:Survival Analysis; D019562:Viral Load
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines; D012333:RNA, Messenger