Affiliations 

  • 1 Special Pathogens Program, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, 1015 Arlington Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3E 3R2, Canada
  • 2 Molecular Pathobiology, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, 1015 Arlington Street, Winnipeg, R3E 3R2, Manitoba, Canada
  • 3 National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, 1015 Arlington Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3E 3M4, Canada
  • 4 Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, University of Manitoba, 745 Bannatyne Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3E 0J9, Canada
  • 5 Special Pathogens Program, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, 1015 Arlington Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3E 3R2, Canada. darwyn.kobasa@canada.ca
Sci Rep, 2019 08 01;9(1):11171.
PMID: 31371748 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-47549-y

Abstract

Nipah virus (NiV) has emerged as a highly lethal zoonotic paramyxovirus that is capable of causing a febrile encephalitis and/or respiratory disease in humans for which no vaccines or licensed treatments are currently available. There are two genetically and geographically distinct lineages of NiV: NiV-Malaysia (NiV-M), the strain that caused the initial outbreak in Malaysia, and NiV-Bangladesh (NiV-B), the strain that has been implicated in subsequent outbreaks in India and Bangladesh. NiV-B appears to be both more lethal and have a greater propensity for person-to-person transmission than NiV-M. Here we describe the generation and characterization of stable RNA polymerase II-driven infectious cDNA clones of NiV-M and NiV-B. In vitro, reverse genetics-derived NiV-M and NiV-B were indistinguishable from a wildtype isolate of NiV-M, and both viruses were pathogenic in the Syrian hamster model of NiV infection. We also describe recombinant NiV-M and NiV-B with enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) inserted between the G and L genes that enable rapid and sensitive detection of NiV infection in vitro. This panel of molecular clones will enable studies to investigate the virologic determinants of henipavirus pathogenesis, including the pathogenic differences between NiV-M and NiV-B, and the high-throughput screening of candidate therapeutics.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.