BioProject

Viral pneumonia has been frequently reported during early stages of influenza virus pandemics and in many human cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus infection. More...

Viral pneumonia has been frequently reported during early stages of influenza virus pandemics and in many human cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus infection. To better understand the pathogenesis of this disease, we produced non-lethal viral pneumonia in rhesus macaques by using an HPAI H5N1 virus (A/Anhui/2/2005; referred to as Anhui/2). Infected macaques were monitored for 14 days, and tissue samples were collected at 6 time points for virologic, histopathologic and transcriptomic analyses. Overall design: Thirteen colony-bred male or female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), aged from 2.5 to 3.5 years and ranging in weight from 2.8 to 4.4 kg, were used for experiments. Twelve macaques were individually infected intratracheally with 10^7 EID50 of Anhui/2 in 4 ml of phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). At 6 h, 12 h, 1 d, 3 d, 6 d, and 14 d post-infection (p.i.), two animals per time-point were euthanized under anesthesia and necropsies were performed. Lung samples were collected and stored in RNAlater (Ambion, Austin, USA) at -80°C for RNA analyses. The remaining macaque (mock-infected) was inoculated with 4 ml of PBS intratracheally and euthanized at 6 h p.i. Lung tissues from the mock-infected animal were collected and stored as described. Less...