Infection of humanized mice with a novel phlebovirus presented pathogenic features of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome

PLoS Pathog. 2021 May 11;17(5):e1009587. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009587. eCollection 2021 May.

Abstract

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) is a tick-borne emerging phlebovirus with high mortality rates of 6.0 to 30%. SFTSV infection is characterized by high fever, thrombocytopenia, leukopenia, hemorrhage and multiple organ failures. Currently, specific therapies and vaccines remain elusive. Suitable small animal models are urgently needed to elucidate the pathogenesis and evaluate the potential drug and vaccine for SFTSV infection. Previous models presented only mild or no pathogenesis of SFTS, limiting their applications in SFTSV infection. Therefore, it is an urgent need to develop a small animal model for the investigation of SFTSV pathogenesis and evaluation of therapeutics. In the current report, we developed a SFTSV infection model based on the HuPBL-NCG mice that recapitulates many pathological characteristics of SFTSV infection in humans. Virus-induced histopathological changes were identified in spleen, lung, kidney, and liver. SFTSV was colocalized with macrophages in the spleen and liver, suggesting that the macrophages in the spleen and liver could be the principle target cells of SFTSV. In addition, histological analysis showed that the vascular endothelium integrity was severely disrupted upon viral infection along with depletion of platelets. In vitro cellular assays further revealed that SFTSV infection increased the vascular permeability of endothelial cells by promoting tyrosine phosphorylation and internalization of the adhesion molecule vascular endothelial (VE)-cadherin, a critical component of endothelial integrity. In addition, we found that both virus infection and pathogen-induced exuberant cytokine release dramatically contributed to the vascular endothelial injury. We elucidated the pathogenic mechanisms of hemorrhage syndrome and developed a humanized mouse model for SFTSV infection, which should be helpful for anti-SFTSV therapy and pathogenesis study.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Blood Platelets / pathology
  • Blood Platelets / virology
  • Cell Adhesion Molecules / metabolism
  • Disease Models, Animal*
  • Endothelial Cells / pathology
  • Endothelial Cells / virology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Leukocytes, Mononuclear / pathology
  • Leukocytes, Mononuclear / virology
  • Macrophages / pathology
  • Macrophages / virology
  • Mice
  • Phlebovirus / pathogenicity*
  • Phosphorylation
  • Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome / pathology*
  • Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome / virology
  • Tick-Borne Diseases / pathology*
  • Tick-Borne Diseases / virology

Substances

  • Cell Adhesion Molecules

Grants and funding

This work was supported by National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (No. 81803414 to XLW, 31970149 to ZWW), The Major Research and Development Project (2018ZX10301406 to ZWW), Jiangsu Province Natural Science Foundation for Young Scholar (grant #BK20170653 to XLW), Nanjing University-Ningxia University Collaborative Project (grant #2017BN04 to ZWW), Jiangsu Province “Innovative and Entrepreneurial Talent” project, Six Talent Peaks Project of Jiangsu Province and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (021414380341 and 021414380432 to XLW). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.