DEVELOPMENT OF RESPIRATORY VIRUS INFECTION STRATEGIES FOR RHESUS MACAQUE AIRWAYS

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. Primary support for the subproject and the subproject's principal investigator may have been provided by other sources, including other NIH sources. The Total Cost listed for the subproject likely represents the estimated amount of Center infrastructure utilized by the subproject, not direct funding provided by the NCRR grant to the subproject or subproject staff. Our primary objective is to understand the pathogenic role of respiratory virus infection in the etiology of asthma and exacerbation of chronic airways inflammation in humans. Our secondary objective is to develop effective and safe vaccine approaches to prevent respiratory syncytial virus infection in young children. We propose that basic immune and physiologic mechanisms for respiratory virus pathobiology in the lung can only be elucidated using an in vivo animal model of infection. Although rodent models have been developed for respiratory virus infection, this species does not effectively duplicate the postnatal development of both lung and immune systems in primates. Our goal is to develop an experimental animal model of human respiratory syncytial virus and human rhinovirus infection using the rhesus macaque monkey (Macaca mulatta). Towards this end, the first step is to optimize the susceptibility of rhesus monkeys to human respiratory virus infection. We hypothesize that the development of a respiratory infection model that demonstrates human clinical symptoms will require in vitro passaging of human viral isolates in rhesus cells to obtain robust viral replication in monkey airways.