A mouse-passaged dengue virus strain with reduced affinity for heparan sulfate causes severe disease in mice by establishing increased systemic viral loads.
The four serotypes of dengue virus (DENV1 to DENV4) cause extensive morbidity and mortality. A major obstacle to studying disease pathogenesis and developing therapies has been the lack of a small-animal model. We previously reported isolation of a DENV2 strain, obtained by passaging a clinical isolate between mosquito cells and mice, that caused severe DENV disease in mice and contained multiple mutations, including many in domain II of the envelope (E) protein. Here, we describe a recombinant virus, differing from the non-mouse-passaged virus by two mutations in the E protein, that induces vascular leakage and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha)-mediated lethality, while the non-mouse-passaged virus causes paralysis. This recombinant virus has a weaker affinity for heparan sulfate, resulting in an increased serum half-life, higher systemic viral loads, and high levels of TNF-alpha in the serum of infected mice. These results exemplify the role of the E protein in modulating virion clearance and connect the effect of clearance on the systemic viral loads responsible for severe disease manifestations.
Division of Vaccine Discovery, La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, 9420 Athena Circle, La Jolla, California 92037, USA.
Tyler R
TR
Prestwood
Daniil M
DM
Prigozhin
Kristin L
KL
Sharar
Raphaël M
RM
Zellweger
Sujan
S
Shresta
D000818:Animals; D003716:Dengue Virus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D006497:Heparan Sulfate / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D009154:Mutation; D012703:Serotyping; D019595:Severe Dengue / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013047:Specific Pathogen-Free Organisms; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000097:blood / Q000494:pharmacology; D019562:Viral Load; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics
D006497:Heparan Sulfate; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D014764:Viral Proteins