Background: Machupo virus (MACV), a member of the Arenaviridae, causes Bolivian hemorrhagic fever, with ~20% lethality in humans. The pathogenesis of MACV infection is poorly understood, and there are no clinically proven treatments for disease. This is due, in part, to a paucity of small animal models for MACV infection in which to discover and explore candidate therapeutics.

Methods: Mice lacking signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT-1) were infected with MACV. Lethality, viral replication, metabolic changes, hematology, histopathology, and systemic cytokine expression were analyzed throughout the course of infection.

Results: We report here that STAT-1 knockout mice succumbed to MACV infection within 7-8 days, and presented some relevant clinical and histopathological manifestations of disease. Furthermore, the model was used to validate the efficacy of ribavirin in protection against infection.

Conclusions: The STAT-1 knockout mouse model can be a useful small animal model for drug testing and preliminary immunological analysis of lethal MACV infection.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3126776PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1743-422X-8-300DOI Listing

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