Maporal Viral Infection in the Syrian Golden Hamster: A Model of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome

Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) is a severe and often fatal rodent-borne zoonosis. Maporal (MAP) virus is a newly discovered hantavirus that originally was isolated from an arboreal rice rat captured in central Venezuela. The results of this study indicate that MAP virus in the Syrian golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) can cause a disease that is clinically and pathologically remarkably similar to HPS. The similarities include the time course of clinical disease, presence of virus-specific IgG at the onset of clinical disease, subacute pneumonitis, rapid onset of diffuse alveolar edema in the absence of necrosis, hepatic-portal triaditis, mononuclear-cellular infiltrate in lung and liver, widespread distribution of hantaviral antigen in endothelial cells of the microvasculature of lung and other tissues, and variable lethality. These similarities suggest that the MAP virus-hamster system is a useful model for studies of the pathogenesis of HPS and for the evaluation of potential therapeutic agents.