In Situ Imaging of Fluorescent Nipah Virus Respiratory and Neurological Tissue Tropism in the Syrian Hamster Model

Abstract

Using a recombinant Nipah virus expressing a fluorescent protein (ZsG), we visualized virus tropism in the Syrian hamster model. We found that anatomical localization of fluorescence correlated to clinical signs; signal was primarily visualized in the respiratory tract in animals with acute-onset terminal disease, whereas central nervous system localization was seen in animals that succumbed with delayed disease onset. While polymerase chain reaction (PCR) detection corresponded well to ZsG signal, virus was only isolated from some lung, brain, liver, and kidney samples that were ZsG and/or PCR positive, and only from animals euthanized on or before 15 days post infection.

Keywords: Nipah; Syrian golden hamster; ZsGreen1; brain; central nervous system; henipavirus; in situ fluorescent imaging; lung; respiratory; virus.