Primate blood signs of arenavirus hemorrhagic fever

Lassa fever virus is a zoonotic pathogen that plagues the endemic areas of West Africa. Rhesus macaques infected with a related arenavirus, LCMV-WE, serve as a model for Lassa-infection of human beings. Using a dose similar to that expected from a needle-stick, monkeys experience an early pre-viremic phase (day 1-3), a viremic phase with febrile onset (day 4-7), and, like human beings who succumb, they die within two weeks. Our goal was to monitor changes in gene expression that parallel disease progression in an effort to 1) identify genes with altered expression after infection, 2) identify genes that could discriminate between a virulent and non-virulent infection, and 3) identify genes encoding products that could serve as treatment targets for FDA-approved pharmaceuticals. Genes related to all three of these categories have been identified and some have been given preliminary validation by quantitative PCR and proteomic studies. These genes will be valuable candidates for future validation as prognostic biomarkers

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Djavani MM, Crasta OR, Zapata JC, Fei Z, Folkerts O, Sobral B, Swindells M, Bryant J, Davis H, Pauza CD, Lukashevich IS, Hammamieh R, Jett M, Salvato MS