Luciferase imaging of a neurotropic viral infection in intact animals

The identification of viral determinants of virulence and host determinants of susceptibility to virus-induced disease is essential for understanding the pathogenesis of infection. Obtaining this information requires infecting large numbers of animals to assay amounts of virus in a variety of organs and to observe the onset and progression of disease. As an alternative approach, we have used a murine model of viral encephalitis and an in vivo imaging system that can detect light generated by luciferase to monitor over time the extent and location of virus replication in intact, living mice. Sindbis virus causes encephalomyelitis in mice, and the outcome of infection is determined both by the strain of virus used for infection and by the strain of mouse infected. The mode of entry into the nervous system is not known. Virulent and avirulent strains of Sindbis virus were engineered to express firefly luciferase, and the Xenogen MS system was used to monitor the location and extent of virus replication in susceptible and resistant mice. The amount of light generated directly reflected the amount of infectious virus in the brain. This system could distinguish virulent and avirulent strains of virus and susceptible and resistant strains of mice and suggested that virus entry into the nervous system could occur by retrograde axonal transport either from neurons innervating the initial site of replication or from the olfactory epithelium after viremic spread.