FIG 4.

Survival and infection after intranasal inoculation with chimeric VSVs. (A) In postnatal day 14 mice, viruses were applied to the external nares. VSV-G/GFP was lethal, as previously reported. VSVΔG-CHIKV and VLV were without lethal effect. VSV-IFN showed no adverse effect. Similarly, VSVΔG-LCMV, used as a negative control for safety, showed no lethal effect. In contrast, VSVΔG-Nipah F+G was lethal in many mice. VSVΔG-H5N1 showed a very strong lethal effect, resulting in a fatal response in almost all of the 23 mice tested. (B) VSVΔG-H5N1 at 5 dpi showed strong infection of the left cortex with minimal infection of the adjacent right cortex. (C) VSVΔG-H5N1 in the same brain strongly infected cells of the hypothalamus in the region of the arcuate nucleus (ARC). (D and E) Hippocampus (D) and lungs (E) showed no detectable infection in the same mouse. (F) VSVΔG-Nipah F+G showed strong infection of periglomerular cells and mitral cells in the olfactory bulb at 3 dpi.