Abstract
Serious infection with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is associated with high risk in infants, children, and elderly. There is currently no approved vaccine against RSV infection, and the only available prevention is immunoprophylaxis utilized in high-risk infants, leaving the elderly without many options. In the elderly, the chronic low-grade inflammatory state of the body can play a significant role during infection. The cotton rat and mouse have emerged as the preferred small animal models to study RSV infection in the elderly. These animal models of aging have shown an age-dependent time course for clearance of virus correlating with a significantly diminished cytotoxic T lymphocyte and humoral immune response in old animals compared to adult animals. In addition, protection through vaccination is reduced in aging rodents. These results mirror the findings in humans. In mice and cotton rats, treatment with ibuprofen, a nonselective nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), to decrease the chronic low-grade inflammation of the elderly immune system has proven successful in restoring the function of cytotoxic lymphocytes. While more research is required, these treatment types promise a beneficial effect in addition to a putative vaccine. Choosing an appropriate animal model to study RSV infection in the aging immune system is essential to benefit the growing population of elderly in the world. This review focuses on the current research of RSV infection in the cotton rat and mouse as model systems for an aging immune system.
Highlights
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) previously belonged to the Paramyxoviridae family, but was reclassified into the Pneumoviridae family in 2016 [1]. e risk for RSV infection is increased by a history of asthma, exposure to smoke, and other chronic diseases [2–4]
With these advantages for both models, numerous studies have focused on the aging immune system and its correlation with RSV infection. ese studies are focused on viral replication, vaccination, and potential treatment options for the elderly
The boost in serum antibody following natural RSV reinfection in elderly adults appears to be short lived [53]. It has been shown in the cotton rat that age-related changes to the immune system can lead to an impaired capacity to mount antibodies in response to RSV [31, 33, 42]. ese studies demonstrated that aging cotton rats had significantly lower neutralizing and total RSV-specific antibody levels when compared to adult cotton rats
Summary
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a nonsegmented negative sense enveloped RNA virus. E risk for RSV infection is increased by a history of asthma, exposure to smoke, and other chronic diseases [2–4]. Disease burden is high for infants and the elderly. RSV infection is responsible for 14,000 deaths annually and about 200,000 hospitalizations among the adult population over 65 years of age in the United States [5, 6]. Because there is no RSV vaccine, numerous vaccine platforms are being used to develop RSV vaccines for adults and high-risk groups including the elderly [7]. Palivizumab is licensed by the Food and Drug Administration for application in preterm infants and infants with a congenital heart disease for the prevention of severe RSV lower respiratory tract infections [8]. E treatment is costly and reserved for infants with high risk of severe disease. Affordable treatments for RSV infection in the elderly would be an attractive complement to vaccination
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