The Intersection of Age and Influenza Severity: Utility of Ferrets for Dissecting the Age-Dependent Immune Responses and Relevance to Age-Specific Vaccine Development

Overview

Journal Viruses

Publisher MDPI

Specialty Microbiology

Date 2021 Apr 30

PMID 33920917

Citations 5

Authors

Melissa Rioux

Magen E Francis

Cynthia L Swan

Anni Ge

Andrea Kroeker

Alyson A Kelvin

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Many factors impact the host response to influenza virus infection and vaccination. Ferrets have been an indispensable reagent for influenza virus research for almost one hundred years. One of the most significant and well-known factors affecting human disease after infection is host age. Another significant factor is the virus, as strain-specific disease severity is well known. Studying age-related impacts on viral infection and vaccination outcomes requires an animal model that reflects both the physiological and immunological changes that occur with human aging, and sensitivity to differentially virulent influenza viruses. The ferret is uniquely susceptible to a plethora of influenza viruses impacting humans and has proven extremely useful in studying the clinical and immunological pictures of influenza virus infection. Moreover, ferrets developmentally have several of the age-related physiological changes that occur in humans throughout infancy, adulthood, old age, and pregnancy. In this review, we discuss ferret susceptibility to influenza viruses, summarize previous influenza studies using ferrets as models of age, and finally, highlight the application of ferret age models in the pursuit of prophylactic and therapeutic agents to address age-related influenza disease severity.

Citing Articles

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