title: Pathogenicity Comparison Between the Kikwit and Makona Ebola Virus Variants in Rhesus Macaques.
abstract: Enhanced virulence and/or transmission of West African Ebola virus (EBOV) variants, which are divergent from their Central African counterparts, are suspected to have contributed to the sizable toll of the recent Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak. This study evaluated the pathogenicity and shedding in rhesus macaques infected with 1 of 2 West African isolates (EBOV-C05 or EBOV-C07) or a Central African isolate (EBOV-K). All animals infected with EBOV-C05 or EBOV-C07 died of EVD, whereas 2 of 3 EBOV-K-infected animals died. The viremia level was elevated 10-fold in EBOV-C05-infected animals, compared with EBOV-C07- or EBOV-K-infected animals. More-severe lung pathology was observed in 2 of 6 EBOV-C05/C07-infected macaques. This is the first detailed analysis of the recently circulating EBOV-C05/C07 in direct comparison to EBOV-K with 6 animals per group, and it showed that EBOV-C05 but not EBOV-C07 can replicate at higher levels and cause more tissue damage in some animals. Increased virus shedding from individuals who are especially susceptible to EBOV replication is possibly one of the many challenges facing the community of healthcare and policy-making responders since the beginning of the outbreak.
authors.affiliation: Special Pathogens Program, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada Department of Medical Microbiology CAS Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing.
authors.forename: Gary
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Special Pathogens Program, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada Department of Medical Microbiology.
authors.forename: Xiangguo
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: Special Pathogens Program, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada Department of Immunology, University of Manitoba.
authors.forename: Marc-Antoine
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: de La Vega
authors.affiliation: Special Pathogens Program, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fernando
authors.affiliation: Special Pathogens Program, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada.
authors.forename: Haiyan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Special Pathogens Program, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada Department of Medical Microbiology.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bello
authors.affiliation: Special Pathogens Program, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada.
authors.forename: Hugues
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fausther-Bovendo
authors.affiliation: Special Pathogens Program, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada Department of Medical Microbiology.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Audet
authors.affiliation: Special Pathogens Program, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kroeker
authors.affiliation: Special Pathogens Program, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kozak
authors.affiliation: Special Pathogens Program, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada.
authors.forename: Kaylie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tran
authors.affiliation: Special Pathogens Program, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada.
authors.forename: Shihua
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Special Pathogens Program, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada.
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tierney
authors.affiliation: Special Pathogens Program, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada.
authors.forename: Geoff
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Soule
authors.affiliation: National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Winnipeg, Canada.
authors.forename: Estella
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Moffat
authors.affiliation: Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Arboviruses and Hemorrhagic Fever Reference and Research, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Günther
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing.
authors.forename: George F
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Special Pathogens Program, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada.
authors.forename: Jim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Strong
authors.affiliation: National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Winnipeg, Canada.
authors.forename: Carissa
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Embury-Hyatt
authors.affiliation: Special Pathogens Program, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada Department of Medical Microbiology Department of Immunology, University of Manitoba Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia.
authors.forename: Gary
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kobinger
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D029043:Ebolavirus / Q000472:pathogenicity* / Q000502:physiology; D019142:Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D013045:Species Specificity; D014766:Viremia; D014774:Virulence; D017201:Virus Shedding
keywords: Ebola virus; Kikwit; Makona; nonhuman primates; pathogenicity