New Paradigms for the Study of Ocular Alphaherpesvirus Infections: Insights into the Use of Non-Traditional Host Model Systems

作者：Pennington Matthew R; Ledbetter Eric C; Van de Walle Gerlinde R^*

来源：Viruses-Basel, 2017, 9(11): 349.

DOI：10.3390/v9110349

• herpesvirus
• HSV-1
• CHV-1
• FHV-1
• ocular infection
• model systems
• natural host infection

Ocular herpesviruses, most notably human alphaherpesvirus 1 (HSV-1), canid alphaherpesvirus 1 (CHV-1) and felid alphaherpesvirus 1 (FHV-1), infect and cause severe disease that may lead to blindness. CHV-1 and FHV-1 have a pathogenesis and induce clinical disease in their hosts that is similar to HSV-1 ocular infections in humans, suggesting that infection of dogs and cats with CHV-1 and FHV-1, respectively, can be used as a comparative natural host model of herpesvirus-induced ocular disease. In this review, we discuss both strengths and limitations of the various available model systems to study ocular herpesvirus infection, with a focus on the use of these non-traditional virus-natural host models. Recent work has demonstrated the robustness and reproducibility of experimental ocular herpesvirus infections in dogs and cats, and, therefore, these non-traditional models can provide additional insights into the pathogenesis of ocular herpesvirus infections.