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Small and easy to keep, zebrafish larvae provide a useful system for studying norovirus. The first reliable small-animal model for human norovirus infection, a notorious cause of the illness known as stomach flu, should help researchers to better understand the biology of these pathogens — and might lead to treatments.
Noroviruses are the leading cause of food-borne illness, and the vomiting, nausea, diarrhoea and stomach cramps that go with it. Every year, the viruses cause around 700 million infections and kill more than 200,000 people — at the expense of US$60 billion in lost productivity and healthcare costs. Until now, the only animal models, including large animals such as chimpanzees and pigs, have been unsuitable.
Now Joana Rocha-Pereira, at KU Leuven in Belgium, and her colleagues report successfully cultivating human noroviruses in the larvae of zebrafish (Danio rerio), a freshwater minnow that shares many genes with humans and is a well-established animal model of human disease.
The model should help to identify the key determinants for human norovirus infection, and — to the relief of many parents — expedite the development of antiviral drugs.
Published in PLOS Pathogens on September 19, 2019:
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1008009
