Figure 3.

Evaluation of VZV-BAC-Luc and VZV-ORF57-Luc growth kinetics and responses to antiviral treatment in a SCIDhu mouse model. SCID beige mice were implanted with a single subcutaneous xenograft of fetal human skin. Xenografts were inoculated 3–4 weeks later with (A) VZV-BAC-Luc or (B) VZV-ORF57-Luc by intra-xenograft injection (1 × 10⁴–10⁵ pfu/mL; 60 µL injection; grown in HFFs). Mice were treated with vehicle (water) or 10 mg/kg/day cidofovir (CDV) by intraperitoneal injection from DPI 3 to 9 (Tx Phase). VZV yield was measured daily by bioluminescence imaging and the fold change was calculated as Total Flux each day divided by the lowest Total Flux value per mouse (usually taken on DPI 2 or 3). Virus growth kinetics were evaluated for statistical significance on DPI 9. Symbols represent mean ± SEM. Student’s t-test; asterisks indicate significance between vehicle and cidofovir groups (* p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01). n = 6–10 mice per group.