TY - JOUR
T1 - Pathogenesis of bat rabies in a natural reservoir
T2 - Comparative susceptibility of the straw-colored fruit bat (Eidolon helvum) to three strains of Lagos bat virus
AU - Suu-Ire, Richard
AU - Begeman, Lineke
AU - Banyard, Ashley C.
AU - Breed, Andrew C.
AU - Drosten, Christian
AU - Eggerbauer, Elisa
AU - Freuling, Conrad M.
AU - Gibson, Louise
AU - Goharriz, Hooman
AU - Horton, Daniel L.
AU - Jennings, Daisy
AU - Kuzmin, Ivan V.
AU - Marston, Denise
AU - Ntiamoa-Baidu, Yaa
AU - Riesle Sbarbaro, Silke
AU - Selden, David
AU - Wise, Emma L.
AU - Kuiken, Thijs
AU - Fooks, Anthony R.
AU - Müller, Thomas
AU - Wood, James L.N.
AU - Cunningham, Andrew A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Suu-Ire et al.
PY - 2018/3/5
Y1 - 2018/3/5
N2 - Rabies is a fatal neurologic disease caused by lyssavirus infection. People are infected through contact with infected animals. The relative increase of human rabies acquired from bats calls for a better understanding of lyssavirus infections in their natural hosts. So far, there is no experimental model that mimics natural lyssavirus infection in the reservoir bat species. Lagos bat virus is a lyssavirus that is endemic in straw-colored fruit bats (Eidolon helvum) in Africa. Here we compared the susceptibility of these bats to three strains of Lagos bat virus (from Senegal, Nigeria, and Ghana) by intracranial inoculation. To allow comparison between strains, we ensured the same titer of virus was inoculated in the same location of the brain of each bat. All bats (n = 3 per strain) were infected, and developed neurological signs, and fatal meningoencephalitis with lyssavirus antigen expression in neurons. There were three main differences among the groups. First, time to death was substantially shorter in the Senegal and Ghana groups (4 to 6 days) than in the Nigeria group (8 days). Second, each virus strain produced a distinct clinical syndrome. Third, the spread of virus to peripheral tissues, tested by hemi-nested reverse transcriptase PCR, was frequent (3 of 3 bats) and widespread (8 to 10 tissues positive of 11 tissues examined) in the Ghana group, was frequent and less widespread in the Senegal group (3/3 bats, 3 to 6 tissues positive), and was rare and restricted in the Nigeria group (1/3 bats, 2 tissues positive). Centrifugal spread of virus from brain to tissue of excretion in the oral cavity is required to enable lyssavirus transmission. Therefore, the Senegal and Ghana strains seem most suitable for further pathogenesis, and for transmission, studies in the straw-colored fruit bat.
AB - Rabies is a fatal neurologic disease caused by lyssavirus infection. People are infected through contact with infected animals. The relative increase of human rabies acquired from bats calls for a better understanding of lyssavirus infections in their natural hosts. So far, there is no experimental model that mimics natural lyssavirus infection in the reservoir bat species. Lagos bat virus is a lyssavirus that is endemic in straw-colored fruit bats (Eidolon helvum) in Africa. Here we compared the susceptibility of these bats to three strains of Lagos bat virus (from Senegal, Nigeria, and Ghana) by intracranial inoculation. To allow comparison between strains, we ensured the same titer of virus was inoculated in the same location of the brain of each bat. All bats (n = 3 per strain) were infected, and developed neurological signs, and fatal meningoencephalitis with lyssavirus antigen expression in neurons. There were three main differences among the groups. First, time to death was substantially shorter in the Senegal and Ghana groups (4 to 6 days) than in the Nigeria group (8 days). Second, each virus strain produced a distinct clinical syndrome. Third, the spread of virus to peripheral tissues, tested by hemi-nested reverse transcriptase PCR, was frequent (3 of 3 bats) and widespread (8 to 10 tissues positive of 11 tissues examined) in the Ghana group, was frequent and less widespread in the Senegal group (3/3 bats, 3 to 6 tissues positive), and was rare and restricted in the Nigeria group (1/3 bats, 2 tissues positive). Centrifugal spread of virus from brain to tissue of excretion in the oral cavity is required to enable lyssavirus transmission. Therefore, the Senegal and Ghana strains seem most suitable for further pathogenesis, and for transmission, studies in the straw-colored fruit bat.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85045117272&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pntd.0006311
DO - 10.1371/journal.pntd.0006311
M3 - Article
C2 - 29505617
AN - SCOPUS:85045117272
SN - 1935-2727
VL - 12
JO - PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
JF - PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
IS - 3
M1 - e0006311
ER -