Guinea Pig Transferrin Receptor 1 Mediates Cellular Entry of Junin Virus and Other Pathogenic New World Arenaviruses.

ABSTRACT: Several clade B New World arenaviruses (NWAs) can cause severe and often fatal hemorrhagic fever, for which preventive and therapeutic measures are severely limited. These NWAs use human transferrin receptor 1 (hTfR1) as a host cell receptor for virus entry. The most prevalent of the pathogenic NWAs is Junín virus (JUNV), the etiological agent of Argentine hemorrhagic fever. Small animal models of JUNV infection are limited because most laboratory rodent species are refractory to disease. Only guinea pigs are known to develop disease following JUNV infection, but the underlying mechanisms are not well characterized. In the present study, we demonstrate marked susceptibility of Hartley guinea pigs to uniformly lethal disease when challenged with as few as 4 PFU of the Romero strain of JUNV.

SUBMITTER: Hickerson BT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6997753 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature