Zika Virus Infection in Dexamethasone-immunosuppressed Mice Demonstrating Disseminated Infection with Multi-organ Involvement Including Orchitis Effectively Treated by Recombinant Type I Interferons

Chan, Jasper Fuk-Woo; Zhang, Anna Jinxia; Chan, Chris Chung-Sing; Yip, Cyril Chik-Yan; Mak, Winger Wing-Nga; Zhu, Houshun; Poon, Vincent Kwok-Man; Tee, Kah-Meng; Zhu, Zheng; Cai, Jian-Piao; Tsang, Jessica Oi-Ling; Chik, Kenn Ka-Heng; Yin, Feifei; Chan, Kwok-Hung; Kok, Kin-Hang; Jin, Dong-Yan; Au-Yeung, Rex Kwok-Him; Yuen, Kwok-Yung

ZIKV was not considered as an important human pathogen in the past as most infected adult patients were asymptomatic or developed a self-limiting acute febrile illness which resolved within 1-2 weeks (Chan et al., 2016a; Duffy et al., 2009 ). However, it has been recently recognized that infected mothers may transmit the virus transplacentally to developing fetuses, leading to congenital malformations, including microcephaly, cerebral malformations, ophthalmological and hearing defects, and arthrogryposis (Chan et al., 2016a; Mlakar et al., 2016; de Paula et al., 2016; Leal et al., 2016) . Some infected adults may also develop severe neurological complications, such as Guillain-Barré syndrome, meningoencephalitis, and myelitis (Cao-Lormeau et al., 2016; Carteaux et al., 2016; Mecharles et al., 2016) . Moreover, ZIKV-related fatalities have been increasingly recognized. Most of the patients with fatal infection had underlying medical conditions and some were markedly immunosuppressed, including a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis who was on corticosteroid therapy and died of disseminated infection with detectable ZIKV RNA in blood, brain, spleen, liver, kidney, lung, and heart obtained at postmortem examination (Pan American Health Organization/World Health Oganization (PAHO/WHO), 2015; Sarmiento-Ospina et al., 2016; Arzuza-Ortega et al., 2016) .