Abstract
AbstractIlhéus virus (ILHV)(Flaviviridae: Orthoflavivirus) is an arthropod-borne virus (arbovirus) endemic to Central and South America and the Caribbean. First isolated in 1944, most of our knowledge derives from surveillance and seroprevalence studies. These efforts have detected ILHV in a broad range of mosquito and vertebrate species, including humans, but laboratory investigations of pathogenesis and vector competence have been lacking. Here, we develop several immune intact murine models that closely recapitulate human neuroinvasive disease with strain- and age-specific virulence, as well as a uniformly lethal immunocompromised model. Replication kinetics in several vertebrate and invertebrate cell lines demonstrate that ILHV is capable of replicating to high titers in a wide variety of potential host and vector species. Lastly, vector competence studies provide strong evidence for efficient infection of and potential transmission byAedesspecies mosquitoes, despite ILHV’s phylogenetically clustering withCulexvectored flaviviruses, suggesting ILHV is poised for emergence in the neotropics.TeaserMurine models of ILHV mimic human disease, andAedesspecies of mosquitoes are highly susceptible to infection and dissemination.
Publisher
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Reference85 articles.
1. The virus of Ilheus encephalitis; isolation, serological specificity and transmission;J Immunol,1947
2. The virus of Ilheus encephalitis; physical properties, pathogenicity and cultivation;J Immunol,1946
3. Detection and characterization of Ilheus and Iguape virus genomes in historical mosquito samples from Southern Brazil;Acta Trop,2020
4. Detection of Ilheus virus in mosquitoes from southeast Amazon, Brazil;Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene,2019