Human parainfluenza virus 3 (HPIV3)

 

Human parainfluenza viruses (HPIVs) commonly cause upper and lower respiratory illnesses in infants, young children, older adults, and people with weakened immune systems, but anyone can get infected.

Symptoms generally appear 2 to 6 days after infection.

HPIVs usually spread by direct contact with infectious droplets or by airborne spread when an infected person breathes, coughs, or sneezes.

HPIVs may remain infectious in airborne droplets for over an hour and on surfaces for a few hours depending on environmental conditions

(Reference: Graphs pertaining to RSV seasonality in Belgium have been sourced from Sciensano.)

High-throughput screening

High throughput screening (HTS)

HTS is an approach in antiviral drug discovery involving the use of automated equipment to rapidly test huge libraries of chemical or biological materials with the aim of identifying hit molecules against specific viruses. HTS is usually done in culture plates with 384 or 1536 wells format using high performance liquid/plate handling devices.

Ex-vivo models

Primary cell culture

These cultures present several advantages over cell lines, including a better representation of the cellular heterogeneity of tissues, a more faithful transcriptomic and proteomic profile (especially when cultured in 3D) and more realistic functional responses, including drug responses.

Organoids

An organoid is a 3D tissue that is mostly derived from stem cells (pluripotent, fetal or adult), and which mimics the key functional, structural and biological complexity of a specified organ. Human organoids are useful tools to study viral infection and efficacy of potential antiviral compounds in a relevant model without the need for more complex animal studies. One example is Human Airway Epithelial (HAE) Cell Cultures that are widely used to study respiratory viral infections.

Animal infection models

Rodent models

Rodent models such as mice, rats and hamsters have been widely used to study viral infections. Such models allow to study host response and pathogenicity for wide variety of viruses. Moreover, these models are beneficial to assess the preclinical efficacy and safety of potential antivirals identified in cell culture assays.

Zebrafish models

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) are optically-transparent tropical freshwater fish of the family Cyprinidae that are widely used as vertebrate models of disease. They have remarkable genetic, physiologic and pharmacologic similarities to humans. Compared to rodents, the maintenance and husbandry costs are very low. Interestingly, zebrafish larvae have been shown to be susceptible to infection with some human viruses (herpes simplex virus type 1, influenza A virus, and chikungunya virus, human norovirus). Therefore, such a model can be used to study the pathogenesis as well as test antiviral drugs for specific human viruses in higher capacity and less cost compared to rodent models.