FIG 5.

Treatment with Y2R-specific NPY peptide protects against retrovirus-induced disease. NPY^−/− mice were infected with 10³ FFU of Fr98 within 24 h of birth. Mice were randomly assigned to two treatment groups; one received vehicle control and the other 15 nmol/kg of NPY 13-36. (A) Mice were given intracerebral inoculations at 14 and 18 dpi and followed for signs of severe neurological disease. The data are the percentages of animals that were not clinical for 10 vehicle control- and 11 NPY 13-36-treated mice. Statistical analysis was completed using a Mantel-Cox analysis. P < 0.05. (B) RNA was isolated from brain tissues of vehicle control- and NPY 13-36-treated mice at 3 weeks postinfection and analyzed by real-time PCR for expression of viral RNA. The data are the means and SEM for 3 or 4 samples per group. No statistical difference was observed between groups. (C and D) Immunohistochemistry of Iba1 (red fluorescence) and virus gp70 (green fluorescence) of brain tissue from 3 weeks of age showing similar infection of microglia in vehicle control- (C) and NPY 13-36-treated (D) mice. The images are representative of 3 or 4 mice per group. The images were taken using an epifluorescence Nikon Eclipse 55i clinical microscope (Nikon) with a Plan Fluor 40× objective (NA 0.75) mounted with a Nikon DS-Ri1 digital camera operated by NIS Elementals v3.2 software.