Viruses of the Venezuelan Equine Encephalomyelitis Complex

Na, Young; Km, Johnson

doi:10.4269/ajtmh.1969.18.280

Cited by 15 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Experimental infections of Sigmodon spp. also support their role as reservoir hosts, and horizontal transmission has been demonstrated among cage mates ( 20 , 23 , 24 ). However, none of these studies of spiny and cotton rats has investigated the clinical or histopathologic manifestations of VEEV infection in these reservoir rodents.…”

mentioning

confidence: 64%

“…(family Echimyidae ) and Sigmodon spp. (family Muridae ) are thought to be principal reservoir hosts for enzootic strains because they are infected in nature, have high rates of immunity, and viremia develops in them after laboratory infection ( 20 , 23 , 24 ). These 2 rodents have different, but overlapping, geographic distributions; Proechimys spp.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When spiny rats were infected with a local subtype ID VEEV strain, high-titer viremia developed, suggesting their role as reservoir hosts. Antibody was detectable by day 3 and persisted for up to 9 months ( 20 ). The role of spiny rats as VEEV reservoirs was reinforced by a study in Colombia and Venezuela in which a correlation was established between the abundance of these rodents and levels of enzootic circulation ( 10 ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Virus Infection of Spiny Rats

Carrara

Gonzales

Ferro

et al. 2005

Emerg. Infect. Dis.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Enzootic strains of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) circulate in forested habitats of Mexico, Central, and South America, and spiny rats (Proechimys spp.) are believed to be the principal reservoir hosts in several foci. To better understand the host-pathogen interactions and resistance to disease characteristic of many reservoir hosts, we performed experimental infections of F1 progeny from Proechimys chrysaeolus collected at a Colombian enzootic VEEV focus using sympatric and allopatric virus strains. All animals became viremic with a mean peak titer of 3.3 log10 PFU/mL, and all seroconverted with antibody titers from 1:20 to 1:640, which persisted up to 15 months. No signs of disease were observed, including after intracerebral injections. The lack of detectable disease and limited histopathologic lesions in these animals contrast dramatically with the severe disease and histopathologic findings observed in other laboratory rodents and humans, and support their role as reservoir hosts with a long-term coevolutionary relationship to VEEV.

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 64%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Virus Infection of Spiny Rats

Carrara

Gonzales

Ferro

et al. 2005

Emerg. Infect. Dis.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…If only a small number of mutations is required, the high mutation rate of RNA viruses like VEE virus would result in the frequent generation of viruses with epizootic potential. Assuming a mutation frequency of about 10 Ϫ4 (estimated previously for another alphavirus, eastern equine encephalitis [35]), a VEE double mutant should occur in most naturally infected rodents, which develop viremia of up to 10 8 PFU/ml after experimental infection with enzootic subtype ID viruses (39). Triple mutants would be expect-ed to occur approximately once in every 1,000 to 10,000 infected hosts.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Genetic and Phenotypic Changes Accompanying the Emergence of Epizootic Subtype IC Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Viruses from an Enzootic Subtype ID Progenitor

Wang

Barrera

Bóshell

et al. 1999

J Virol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Recent studies have indicated that epizootic Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) viruses can evolve from enzootic, subtype ID strains that circulate continuously in lowland tropical forests (A. M. Powers, M. S. Oberste, A. C. Brault, R. Rico-Hesse, S. M. Schmura, J. F. Smith, W. Kang, W. P. Sweeney, and S. C. Weaver, J. Virol. 71:6697–6705, 1997). To identify mutations associated with the phenotypic changes leading to epizootics, we sequenced the entire genomes of two subtype IC epizootic VEE virus strains isolated during a 1992–1993 Venezuelan outbreak and four sympatric, subtype ID enzootic strains closely related to the predicted epizootic progenitor. Analysis by maximum-parsimony phylogenetic methods revealed 25 nucleotide differences which were predicted to have accompanied the 1992 epizootic emergence; 7 of these encoded amino acid changes in the nsP1, nsP3, capsid, and E2 envelope glycoprotein, and 2 were mutations in the 3′ untranslated genome region. Comparisons with the genomic sequences of IAB and other IC epizootic VEE virus strains revealed that only one of the seven amino acid changes associated with the 1992 emergence, a threonine-to-methionine change at position 360 of the nsP3 protein, accompanied another VEE virus emergence event. Two changes in the E2 envelope glycoprotein region believed to include the major antigenic determinants, both involving replacement of uncharged residues with arginine, are also candidates for epizootic determinants.

show abstract

“…Specifically, major human epidemics and equine epizootics have been associated with subtypes IAB and IC. [1][2][3][4][5] Enzootic transmission is generally associated with subtypes ID and IE, which are usually less virulent in horses. 6 In contrast, the epizootic subtypes IAB and IC are highly pathogenic in horses, with case fatality rates of up to 83% reported.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recombinant Alphaviruses Are Safe and Useful Serological Diagnostic Tools

Yun²,

Zacks

et al. 2007

The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Serological assays for diagnosis of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) currently require bio-safety level 3 facilities and select agent certification to produce antigens, reference sera, or viral stocks. Rapid identification of VEEV infection is required to respond to human and equine outbreaks of encephalitis caused by that virus and can be useful for epidemiologic surveillance. Alphavirus (Sindbis)-based recombinant viruses that express VEEV structural proteins are attenuated in animal models, thus representing an alternative to the handling of virulent infectious virus. Virus and viral antigens from recombinant Sindbis/VEE constructs engineered to express structural proteins from multiple VEEV subtypes were evaluated as diagnostic reagents in VEEV-specific serological assays, e.g., plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT), hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assay, and complement fixation (CF) test. Chimeric viruses were produced efficiently in cell culture and were as effective as the parental virus for identifying infection of humans, horses, and rodents in these serological assays.

show abstract

Viruses of the Venezuelan Equine Encephalomyelitis Complex

Cited by 15 publications

References 0 publications

Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Virus Infection of Spiny Rats

Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Virus Infection of Spiny Rats

Genetic and Phenotypic Changes Accompanying the Emergence of Epizootic Subtype IC Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Viruses from an Enzootic Subtype ID Progenitor

Recombinant Alphaviruses Are Safe and Useful Serological Diagnostic Tools

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About