Abstract
Three human cases of H10N8 virus infections were initially reported in China in late 2013 and early 2014, two of which were fatal. This was the first time the H10N8 subtype has been detected in humans, and the pathogenicity of this virus remains under characterized. We first assessed its pathogenicity by infecting BALB/c mice with two H10N8 isolates, A/Jiangxi-Donghu/346-1/2013 and A/Chicken/Jiangxi/102/2013. The human isolate (H346-1) demonstrated stronger capability of replication and induced higher cytokine response in vivo than the chicken isolate (C102). In addition, H346-1 was fatal to mice, while all mice (N = 14) in C102-infected group survived during the infection course without weight loss. We hypothesized that the 627K mutation in the PB2 gene (PB2-K627) in H346-1 was associated with high pathogenicity in mice. Taken together, this study based on mouse model provides some insight into understanding the pathogenicity of the emerging viruses in mammals.