Experimental Infection of Tupaia belangeri (Tree Shrews) with Herpes Simplex Virus Types 1 and 2

Abstract

The susceptibility of Tupaia belangeri (tree shrews, which are primitive prosimian primates) to infection with herpes simplex virus (HSV) and the pathogenesis of HSV in these animals were investigated. Juvenile (28--45 days old) and adult (150 days old) animals were inoculated intravenously, intraperitoneally, or subcutaneously with HSV type 1 or 2 (25--10(5) plaque-forming units per animal). Clinical illness usually appeared in juvenile animals on the second day after inoculation, and the animals died between two and 14 days after inoculation. High titers of infectious HSV were recovered from liver and spleen. The histopathologic examination always showed severe liver changes with numerous necrotic areas. The morphologic events in the liver were designated as herpetic hepatitis. The next most common morphologic findings were encephalitis and fibrosis in the spleen. These results demonstrate the high pathogenicity of HSV types 1 and 2 in juvenile T. belangeri. In contrast, adult animals did not develop acute clinical disease and survived the HSV infection.

Herpes Simplex Virus 1 Infection of Tree Shrews Differs from That of Mice in the Severity of Acute Infection and Viral Transcription in the Peripheral Nervous System

“…Furthermore, tree shrews are finding a place in many models of human brain pathogenesis from mapping of neuropeptide distribution (46), models for opiate addiction (47) to drug target mining (48) and specific diseases such as Parkinson's disease (49). HSV infection was first reported in the tree shrew in 1978 by Darai et al, who studied the pathogenesis following intravenous, intraperitoneal, and subcutaneous infection (27). They later studied infection by intraherpetic transfection of HSV DNA (50) and viral latency in this system (28).…”

“…The recently published complete genome and transcriptome of the tree shrew suggest that it is closely related to primates (25,26). This, and the fact that tree shrews are known to be susceptible to HSV-1 and HSV-2 infections, opens the possibility to use the tree shrew as a surrogate for primate models of HSV pathogenesis (27,28). Here, we have investigated and characterized HSV-1 infection in the TGs of the tree shrew and confirmed that HSV-1 establishes latency in the TG after ocular inoculation.…”

Transmission of hepatitis C virus infection to tree shrews

“…assamensts (Wang et al, 1991). Tree shrews have shown susceptibility to infection by human rotavirus (Wan et al, 1982), herpes simplex virus type 1 and 2 (Darai et al, 1978), and human hepatitis viruses A, B, and D (Li et al, 1995;Walter et al, 1996;Yan et al, 1996a,b;Zan et al, 1981). Susceptibility of Tupaia to HCV infection has not been reported.…”

Hepatitis B virus mutations associated with fulminant hepatitis induce apoptosis in primary Tupaia hepatocytes†

“…Tupaia belangeri has been shown to be susceptible to infection with a variety of human viruses, including rotavirus, herpes simplex virus, and hepatitis B and C viruses. [21][22][23][24] We and others have demonstrated that primary Tupaia hepatocytes (PTHs) represent a convenient and suitable in vitro model to study HBV infection and replication. [25][26][27] In this study, we demonstrate that HBV core promoter mutants associated with fulminant hepatitis exhibit a phenotype in primary hepatocytes distinctly different from previous findings in hepatoma cell lines.…”