Wei Li, Zhu Shanshan, She Ruiping, Hu Fengjiao, Wang Jing, Yan Xu, Zhang Chunyan, Liu Shuhang, Quan Rong, Li Zixuan, Du Fang, Wei Ting, Liu Jue
Beijing Key Laboratory for Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases in Livestock and Poultry, Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
PLoS One. 2014 Mar 17;9(3):e92136. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0092136. eCollection 2014.
Avian metapneumovirus (aMPV) emerged as an important respiratory pathogen causing acute respiratory tract infection in avian species. Here we used a chicken aMPV subgroup C (aMPV/C) isolate to inoculate experimentally BALB/c mice and found that the aMPV/C can efficiently replicate and persist in the lungs of mice for at least 21 days with a peak viral load at day 6 postinoculation. Lung pathological changes were characterized by increased inflammatory cells. Immunochemical assay showed the presence of viral antigens in the lungs and significant upregulation of pulmonary inflammatory cytokines and chemokines including MCP-1, MIP-1α, RANTES, IL-1β, IFN-γ, and TNF-α were detected following inoculation. These results indicate for the first time that chicken aMPV/C may replicate in the lung of mice. Whether aMPV/C has potential as zoonotic pathogen, further investigation will be required.
禽偏肺病毒（aMPV）是一种重要的呼吸道病原体，可导致禽类发生急性呼吸道感染。在此，我们使用一株鸡源aMPV C亚群（aMPV/C）分离株对BALB/c小鼠进行实验性接种，发现aMPV/C能够在小鼠肺中有效复制并持续存在至少21天，接种后第6天病毒载量达到峰值。肺部病理变化表现为炎性细胞增多。免疫化学分析显示肺中存在病毒抗原，接种后检测到包括MCP-1、MIP-1α、RANTES、IL-1β、IFN-γ和TNF-α在内的肺部炎性细胞因子和趋化因子显著上调。这些结果首次表明鸡aMPV/C可能在小鼠肺中复制。aMPV/C是否具有作为人畜共患病原体的潜力，还需要进一步研究。
