Abstract
Hantaan virus (HTNV) infects humans and causes hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS). The development of well-characterized animal models of HFRS could accelerate the testing of vaccine candidates and therapeutic agents and provide a useful tool for studying the pathogenesis of HFRS. Because NLRC3 has multiple immunoregulatory roles, we investigated the susceptibility of Nlrc3(-/-) mice to HTNV infection in order to establish a new model of HFRS. Nlrc3(-/-) mice developed weight loss, renal hemorrhage, and tubule dilation after HTNV infection, recapitulating many clinical symptoms of human HFRS. Moreover, infected Nlrc3(-/-) mice showed higher viral loads in serum, spleen, and kidney than wild type C57BL/6 (WT) mice, and some of them manifested more hematological disorders and significant pathological changes within multiple organs than WT mice. Our results identify that HTNV infected Nlrc3(-/-) mice can develop clinical symptoms and pathological changes resembling patients with HFRS, suggesting a new model for studying the pathogenesis and testing of candidate vaccines and therapeutics.