title: Mouse lung slices: An ex vivo model for the evaluation of antiviral and anti-inflammatory agents against influenza viruses.
abstract: The influenza A virus is notoriously known for its ability to cause recurrent epidemics and global pandemics. Antiviral therapy is effective when treatment is initiated within 48h of symptom onset, and delaying treatment beyond this time frame is associated with decreased efficacy. Research on anti-inflammatory therapy to ameliorate influenza-induced inflammation is currently underway and seems important to the impact on the clinical outcome. Both antiviral and anti-inflammatory drugs with novel mechanisms of action are urgently needed. Current methods for evaluating the efficacy of anti-influenza drugs rely mostly on transformed cells and animals. Transformed cell models are distantly related to physiological and pathological conditions. Although animals are the best choices for preclinical drug testing, they are not time- or cost-efficient. In this study, we established an ex vivo model using mouse lung slices to evaluate both antiviral and anti-inflammatory agents against influenza virus infection. Both influenza virus PR8 (H1N1) and A/Human/Hubei/3/2005 (H3N2) can replicate efficiently in mouse lung slices and trigger significant cytokine and chemokine responses. The induction of selected cytokines and chemokines were found to have a positive correlation between ex vivo and in vivo experiments, suggesting that the ex vivo cultured lung slices may closely resemble the lung functionally in an in vivo configuration when challenged by influenza virus. Furthermore, a set of agents with known antiviral and/or anti-inflammatory activities were tested to validate the ex vivo model. Our results suggested that mouse lung slices provide a robust, convenient and cost-efficient model for the assessment of both antiviral and anti-inflammatory agents against influenza virus infection in one assay. This ex vivo model may predict the efficacy of drug candidates' antiviral and anti-inflammatory activities in vivo.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 43001, Hubei, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 43001, Hubei, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; Department of Anatomy, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China(1).
authors.forename: Liwei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: An
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 43001, Hubei, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Ge
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 43001, Hubei, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoyu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 43001, Hubei, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 43001, Hubei, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: chenxl@wh.iov.cn.
authors.forename: Xulin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000893:Anti-Inflammatory Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D016207:Cytokines / Q000032:analysis; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical / Q000379:methods*; D053118:Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype / Q000187:drug effects*; D053122:Influenza A Virus, H3N2 Subtype / Q000187:drug effects*; D008168:Lung / Q000473:pathology* / Q000821:virology*; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C
chemical_list: D000893:Anti-Inflammatory Agents; D000998:Antiviral Agents; D016207:Cytokines
keywords: Anti-inflammatory; Antiviral; Chemokine; Cytokine; Influenza virus; Lung slice