A study of the effects of age on the dynamics of RSV in animal models

Quantifying the effect of defective viral genomes in respiratory syncytial virus infections

Defective viral genomes (DVGs) are viral genomes that contain only a partial viral RNA and so cannot replicate within cells on their own. If a cell containing DVGs is subsequently infected with a complete viral genome, the DVG can then use the missing proteins expressed by the full genome in order to replicate itself. Since the cell is producing defective genomes, it has less resources to produce fully functional virions and thus release of complete virions is often suppressed. Here, we use data from challenge studies of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in healthy adults to quantify the effect of DVGs. We use a mathematical model to fit the data, finding that late onset of DVGs and prolonged DVG detection are associated with lower infection rates and higher clearance rates. This result could have implications for the use of DVGs as a therapeutic.

Use of mathematical modelling to assess respiratory syncytial virus epidemiology and interventions: a literature review

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a leading cause of acute lower respiratory tract infection worldwide, resulting in approximately sixty thousand annual hospitalizations of< 5-year-olds in the United States alone and three million annual hospitalizations globally. The development of over 40 vaccines and immunoprophylactic interventions targeting RSV has the potential to significantly reduce the disease burden from RSV infection in the near future. In the context of RSV, a highly contagious pathogen, dynamic transmission models (DTMs) are valuable tools in the evaluation and comparison of the effectiveness of different interventions. This review, the first of its kind for RSV DTMs, provides a valuable foundation for future modelling efforts and highlights important gaps in our understanding of RSV epidemics. Specifically, we have searched the literature using Web of Science, Scopus, Embase, and PubMed to identify all published manuscripts reporting the development of DTMs focused on the population transmission of RSV. We reviewed the resulting studies and summarized the structure, parameterization, and results of the models developed therein. We anticipate that future RSV DTMs, combined with cost-effectiveness evaluations, will play a significant role in shaping decision making in the development and implementation of intervention programs.