#36 – LCMV: Why Mice in Your Home Can Be a Risk

Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) is an arenavirus closely related to Lassa virus, but unlike Junin virus it isn’t limited to South America: it’s found worldwide in house mice. Florian Krammer explains how people get infected, mostly by inhaling dust from dried mouse urine, droppings or saliva, and less often through bites, contaminated food or infected pets like hamsters. Most infections go unnoticed, and studies from Croatia and Bratislava found antibodies in up to 40 percent of people. LCMV becomes dangerous for two groups: in organ transplant recipients it resembles a hemorrhagic fever with a fatality rate above 70 percent, and in pregnant women it can cause miscarriage or severe birth defects. There is no vaccine and no effective treatment. On the bright side, research with LCMV in mice revealed how T cells recognize infected cells, earning Rolf Zinkernagel and Peter Doherty the 1996 Nobel Prize. Recent review about LCMV: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8163193/ US CDC LCMV information: https://www.cdc.gov/lymphocytic-choriomeningitis/about/index.html +++++ You can support the podcast via our German Steady page: https://steady.page/virologisch/ Questions, feedback or topic suggestions? Feel free to contact us at: virological@podcastwerkstatt.com +++++ Krammer laboratory information Krammer Laboratory at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai https://labs.icahn.mssm.edu/krammerlab/ Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Science Outreach and Pandemic Preparedness https://soap.lbg.ac.at/ Ignaz Semmelweis Institute https://semmelweisinstitute.ac.at/ +++++ Conflict of interest statement The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has filed patent applications relating to influenza virus vaccines and therapeutics, SARS-CoV-2 serological assays and NDV-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccines which name me as inventor. Mount Sinai has spun out a company, CastleVax, to commercialize NDV-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and I am named as co-founder and scientific advisory board member of that company. I have previously consulted for Curevac, Merck, Gritstone, Sanofi, Seqirus, GSK and Pfizer and I am currently consulting for 3rd Rock Ventures (US) and Avimex (Mexico). My laboratory has been collaborating in the past with Pfizer on animal models of SARS-CoV-2 and with GlaxoSmithKline and VIR on the development of influenza virus vaccines and therapeutics and we are currently collaborating with Dynavax, Inspirevax and Inimmune on development of influenza virus vaccines. My work in the on immunity and infectious diseases in the US is supported by the National Institutes of Health, but also by FluLab and Tito’s Handmade Vodka. In the past I have also received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, PATH and the US Department of Defense. My work in Austria is supported by the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft and by the Ignaz Semmelweis Institute through the Medical University of Vienna.