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Chikungunya AG129 Mouse Model

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a mosquito-borne alphavirus endemic in Africa and Asia that causes a debilitating disease in over 2 million people every year in explosive outbreaks. Currently there are no vaccines or therapeutics available for this emerging virus. IBT Bioservices has established a lethal model for this disease based on previous publication (Partidos, 2011).

This model utilizes AG129 mice deficient in IFN α/β and IFN γ signaling and an attenuated strain of CHIKV (181/25). It is an ideal model for testing drug and vaccine candidates and has the following advantages:

  • Lethal challenge dose established allowing efficacy testing using morbidity and mortality endpoints.
  • Virus causes necrotic histopathological changes in the spleens of infected mice.
  • Utilizes an attenuated strain (CHIKV 181/25) that is safe to handle in BSL-2 environment thereby avoiding high costs of BSL-3 studies.
  • Successfully used to demonstrate efficacy of CHIKV experimental vaccine candidates.
  • Adoptive transfer of hyperimmune serum protects against lethal challenge suggesting the utility of the model to evaluate therapeutic candidates.

Chikungunya

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Fig. 1 Survival after challenge with INFV H1N1 A/Pert/261/2009 (Tamiflu-resistant strain). Inoculum 1xLD90=1.0E+05 PFU/mouse
Survival after challenge with INFV H1N1 A/Pert/261/2009 (Tamiflu-resistant strain) 1.0E+05 PFU/mouse
Survival and weight change in BALB/c mice challenged with INFV A/ Texas/36/91 (H1N1) and treated with antiviral Osletamivir Phosphate (Tamiflu)
Lung viral load and Survival (30 % weight loss cut-off) in BALB/c mice challenged with INFV H3N2 A/HK/1/68.