Figure 5
From: Antiviral activity of pimecrolimus against dengue virus type 2 infection in vitro and in vivo
Antiviral effect of pimecrolimus against DENV2 in IFNAR1-transgenic mice. Six-week-old IFNAR1-transgenic mice were intraperitoneally inoculated with DENV2 (1.05 × 106 PFU/mouse). Pimecrolimus was orally administered in mice (15 or 30 mg/kg) twice daily for 14 days. (a) Graph depicting changes in the body weight of mice across the different treatment groups, monitored for 14 dpi. (b) Survival rate of mice infected with DENV2 and treated with the indicated pimecrolimus concentrations. The DENV2 genome copy number was estimated in the supernatants of (c) brain, (d) liver, and (e) spleen tissue homogenates at 6 dpi, between the various treatment groups. Accordingly, the DENV2 plaque titer was analyzed in the supernatants of (f) brain, (g) liver, and (h) spleen tissue homogenates at 6 dpi, between the various treatment groups. (i) Representative hematoxylin and eosin staining images of the murine liver and spleen tissues. Black arrows indicate focal necrosis. Scale bar: 100 μm. All data are expressed as mean ± SEM (n = 3 independent biological experiments, each conducted with triplicate technical repeats; ns, not significant; *p < 0.05; ***p < 0.001; ****p < 0.0001; all comparisons were made against the DENV2-infected group).
