Japanese encephalitis virus induces vasodilation and severe lethality in adult and aged AG129 mice lacking alpha, beta and gamma interferon receptors.

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a single-stranded positive-sense RNA virus belonging to the Flaviviridae family. The JEV is the leading cause of viral encephalitis in children and the elderly which is spread by mosquitoes. JEV infection has been established in different animal models such as mouse, hamster, guinea pig, swine, rat, monkey, rabbit by using the different routes of inoculations. Here, we have shown that the alpha/beta and gamma -receptor deficient AG129 mouse induces fatal encephalitis in both young and aged old mice, when challenged with high titer JEV Indian clinical isolate by both intraperitoneal and intradermal route. The JEV infected AG129 mouse have shown neurological symptoms, JEV-induced pathological features and supported high level viral replication. Additionally, administration of JEV in AG129 mice resulted in the induction of severe peripheral vascular permeability, which is a major hall mark of Dengue infection but not shown in JEV. Taken together, our results demonstrate interferon α/β and γ receptors knock out AG129 mouse does not need adaptation of JEV clinical isolates and could be is a promising JEV challenge mouse model by mimicking the natural intradermal route of administration for rapid screening of novel antivirals and vaccines.