Project Grant R01AI185926

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) awarded a $1,264,525 Project Grant under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) to the Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital. The purpose of this 5-year project is to identify the genomic regions and mutations in a mouse-adapted variant of a rodent hepatitis C-like virus (RN-2M) that allow it to establish chronic infection. The researchers will also compare the nature of infection and biological properties between the parent RN-2 strain and the adapted RN-2M variant to gain insights into the mechanisms of immune evasion used by hepatitis C virus. This research leverages a recently described mouse model at the Collaborative Cross-071 strain that can sustain chronic RN-1 infection, as well as the newly identified chronic RN-2M model in normal laboratory mice. The findings are expected to inform the development of this animal model for further studies on spontaneous long-term chronic infection of hepatotropic RNA viruses.