Fig. 1.

Survival and viral burden analysis of wild-type and viperin^−/− C57BL/6 mice. (A) Nine-week-old age-matched wild-type (n = 8) and viperin^−/− (n = 11) mice were inoculated subcutaneously with 10² PFU of WNV, and mice were monitored for 21 days for mortality. Survival differences were statistically significant (P = 0.03). (B to G) WNV tissue burden and spread in mice after subcutaneous infection. Viperin^−/− and wild-type mice were infected with 10² PFU of WNV via subcutaneous injection into the footpad. At the indicated times postinfection, tissues were harvested and analyzed for viral burden by qRT-PCR (B and C) or plaque assay (D to G). Data are shown as WNV genome equivalents per microgram of 18S rRNA (r18S) or PFU per gram of tissue for 8 to 16 mice per time point. Solid lines represent the median viral titer, and dotted lines indicate the limit of detection of the respective assays. Asterisks indicate values that are statistically significant (*, P < 0.05).