Figure 1.

IRF2 prevents lethal neuroinvasion of disparate neurotropic viruses. (A and B) Mortality (A) and disease progression (B) of mice infected i.p. with 13,000 PFU SVN were monitored for 14 d. For mortality, a total of 14–15 mice per genotype were infected, divided among seven independent experiments. For measuring clinical symptoms, 9–10 mice per genotype were scored each day. The p-value for the survival curve was determined by the log-rank test (P < 0.0001). (C) Viral titers in various tissues of mice infected i.p. with SVN were measured on days 0–7 p.i. Brain, serum, liver, and whole spleens from three to six mice per genotype per time point were harvested and/or homogenized for infection of BHK-21 cells in plaque assays. The dashed line indicates the plaque assay detection limit. Lines represent the mean. Two-way ANOVA test: brain, P < 0.0001; whole spleen, P < 0.001. Bonferroni posttests: *, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01; ***, P < 0.001. (D) Mortality of mice infected intracranially (I.C.) with 13,000 PFU SVN was monitored for 7 d. A total of 7–10 mice per genotype were infected, divided among four independent experiments. The p-value for the survival curve was determined by the log-rank test. (E) Mortality of mice infected i.p. with 10,000 PFU VSV was monitored for 14 d. A total of seven mice per genotype were infected in four independent experiments. The p-value for the survival curve was determined by the log-rank test (P = 0.02).