ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Veterinary Clinical, Anatomical, and Comparative Pathology
This article is part of the Research TopicInnovative Approaches in Veterinary Pathology: Diagnostics, Therapeutics, and Zoonotic Threats - volume IIView all 4 articles
Histopathological and immunohistochemical characterisation of lesions in the golden Syrian hamster model of Nipah Virus infection (Bangladesh strain)
Provisionally accepted
Kirsty Swan1
Francisco Javier Salguero1Alison Bird1
Laura Hunter1Chelsea Kennard1
Stephen Findlay-Wilson1
Stuart Dowall1
Emma Kennedy1Neil Almond2Sarah Kempster2
Ines Ruedas-Torres1*- 1United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA Porton Down), Salisbury, United Kingdom
- 2Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, London, United Kingdom
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Nipah virus (NiV) is recognised as a priority pathogen with pandemic potential by the World Health Organisation (WHO). NiV-Bangladesh strain (NiV-B) has been associated with recent outbreaks in different districts of Bangladesh and in Kerala state (India), and it is suggested to be more pathogenic and lethal than NiV-Malaysian strain (NiV-M). In this study, we aimed to describe the clinical signs and pathology of NiV-B using the golden Syrian hamster model following intranasal (IN) and intraperitoneal (IP) inoculation with different doses, and to compare with prior NiV-M results. For this purpose, we selected samples from NiV-B infected animals which were submitted for H&E evaluation, immunohistochemistry (IHC), in-situ hybridisation (ISH) (RNAscope technique) and multiplex immunofluorescence (mIF). An absence of neurological signs was observed in NiV-B infected animals compared with those NiV-M infected. Except for the brain, which did show only mild lesions, histopathological analysis of NiV-B demonstrated similar pathology and viral RNA in the lung, spleen and liver to those of NiV-M infected animals, with the lung being the main affected organ. Pulmonary lesions consisted of areas of broncho-interstitial pneumonia associated with high cell death activation (caspase-3), proliferation (Ki67) and abundant intralesional macrophages (Iba1) and T cells (CD3). Differential upregulation of the cytokine IL-6 was observed in the lung from NiV-B compared with NiV-M infected animals. Moreover, we demonstrated wide distribution of the NiV receptor ephrin B2 in endothelial cells, neurons, smooth muscle, epithelial cells, macrophages/type II pneumocytes and T cells.
Keywords: Bangladesh strain, Golden Syrian hamster, histopathology, Immunopathogenesis, Nipah Virus
Received: 18 Sep 2025; Accepted: 15 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Swan, Salguero, Bird, Hunter, Kennard, Findlay-Wilson, Dowall, Kennedy, Almond, Kempster and Ruedas-Torres. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ines Ruedas-Torres
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