Key result
Experimental Langat virus infection in infant rats significantly increased the percentage of time spent awake during the dark phase (62.70% vs 49.85%) and decreased spontaneous locomotor activity.
Why the study?
Altered sleep-wake functions are reported after tick-borne encephalitis, but the mechanisms causing these disorders remain largely unknown.
Does experimental tick-borne encephalitis virus infection alter sleep-wake behavior and locomotion in infant rats?
Does experimental tick-borne encephalitis virus infection alter sleep-wake behavior and locomotion in infant rats?
Absolute Event Rate: 62.7% vs 49.85%
p-value: p=0.00002
Experimental tick-borne encephalitis in infant rats leads to long-term sleep-wake disturbances, decreased spontaneous locomotor activity, and impaired motor coordination, mirroring post-encephalitic syndrome in humans.
Animal model shows TBE disrupts sleep–wake behavior; leaves open mechanisms and relevance to human post-encephalitic syndrome.
BACKGROUND/AIMS: Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is a disease affecting the central nervous system. Over the last decade, the incidence of TBE has steadily increased in Europe and Asia despite the availably of effective vaccines. Up to 50% of patients after TBE suffer from post-encephalitic syndrome that may develop into long-lasting morbidity. Altered sleep-wake functions have been reported by patients after TBE. The mechanisms causing these disorders in TBE are largely unknown to date. As a first step toward a better understanding of the pathology of TBEV-inducing sleep dysfunctions, we assessed parameters of sleep structure in an established infant rat model of TBE. METHODS: FFU Langat virus (LGTV). On day 4, 9, and 21 post infection, Rotarod (balance and motor coordination) and open field tests (general locomotor activity) were performed and brains from representative animals were collected in each subgroup. On day 28 the animals were implanted with a telemetric EEG/EMG system. Sleep recording was continuously performed for 24 consecutive hours starting at day 38 post infection and visually scored for Wake, NREM, and REM in 4 s epochs. RESULTS: As a novelty of this study, infected animals showed a significant larger percentage of time spend awake during the dark phase and less NREM and REM compared to the control animals (p < 0.01 for all comparisons). Furthermore, it was seen, that during the dark phase the wake bout length in infected animals was prolonged (p = 0.043) and the fragmentation index decreased (p = 0.0085) in comparison to the control animals. LGTV-infected animals additionally showed a reduced rotarod performance ability at day 4 (p = 0.0011) and day 9 (p = 0.0055) and day 21 (p = 0.0037). A lower locomotor activity was also seen at day 4 (p = 0.0196) and day 9 (p = 0.0473). CONCLUSION: Our data show that experimental TBE in infant rats affects sleep-wake behavior, leads to decreased spontaneous locomotor activity, and impaired moto-coordinative function.
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Chiffi et al. (2022) studied Tick-borne encephalitis (n=113). Langat virus (LGTV) infection vs. Sham injection (PC12 cell medium) was evaluated on Percentage of time spent awake during the dark phase (p=0.00002). Experimental Langat virus infection in infant rats significantly increased the percentage of time spent awake during the dark phase (62.70% vs 49.85%) and decreased spontaneous locomotor activity.
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