Bioluminescent imaging of vaccinia virus infection in immunocompetent and immunodeficient rats as a model for human smallpox.

ABSTRACT: Due to the increasing concern of using smallpox virus as biological weapons for terrorist attack, there is renewed interest in studying the pathogenesis of human smallpox and development of new therapies. Animal models are highly demanded for efficacy and safety examination of new vaccines and therapeutic drugs. Here, we demonstrated that both wild type and immunodeficient rats infected with an engineered vaccinia virus carrying Firefly luciferase reporter gene (rTV-Fluc) could recapitulate infectious and clinical features of human smallpox. Vaccinia viral infection in wild type Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats displayed a diffusible pattern in various organs, including liver, head and limbs. The intensity of bioluminescence generated from rTV-Fluc correlated well with viral loads in tissues. More

SUBMITTER: Liu Q 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4522659 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature