Animal Models Of Dengue Virus Infection And Disease: Applications, Insights And Frontiers

Many important questions in dengue pathogenesis are difficult to address without appropriate animal models of infection and disease. However, animal models of dengue virus (DENV) infection have been hampered by the fact that no non-human species naturally exhibits disease similar to human dengue fever or dengue shock syndrome following natural or experimental infection. Recently, though, many aspects of human DENV infection and disease have been reproduced in mice by manipulating the host and/or the virus to facilitate susceptibility to infection, and judicious use of these mouse models in combination with non-human primate models of DENV infection has resulted in substantial progress. This chapter briefly reviews the animal models for DENV infection currently available, and surveys the contributions each has made to four key areas in dengue research: pathogenesis, immunity and immunopathogenesis, therapeutic drug development, and vaccine development.