Targeted Mutations in the Fusion Peptide Region of La Crosse Virus Attenuate Neuroinvasion and Confer Protection against Encephalitis

La Crosse virus (LACV) is a major cause of pediatric encephalitis and aseptic meningitis in the Midwestern, Mid-Atlantic, and Southern United States, where it is an emerging pathogen. The LACV Gc glycoprotein plays a critical role in the neuropathogenesis of LACV encephalitis as the putative virus attachment protein. Previously, we identified and experimentally confirmed the location of the LACV fusion peptide within Gc and generated a panel of recombinant LACVs (rLACVs) containing mutations in the fusion peptide as well as the wild-type sequence. These rLACVs retained their ability to cause neuronal death in a primary embryonic rat neuronal culture system, despite decreased replication and fusion phenotypes. To test the role of the fusion peptide in vivo, we tested rLACVs in an age-dependent murine model of LACV encephalitis. When inoculated directly into the CNS of young adult mice (P28), the rLACV fusion peptide mutants were as neurovirulent as the rLACV engineered with a wild-type sequence, confirming the results obtained in tissue culture. In contrast, the fusion peptide mutant rLACVs were less neuroinvasive when suckling (P3) or weanling (P21) mice were inoculated peripherally, demonstrating that the LACV fusion peptide is a determinant of neuroinvasion, but not of neurovirulence. In a challenge experiment, we found that peripheral challenge of weanling (P21) mice with fusion peptide mutant rLACVs protected from a subsequent WT-LACV challenge, suggesting that mutations in the fusion peptide are an attractive target for generating live-attenuated virus vaccines. Importantly, the high degree of conservation of the fusion peptide amongst the Bunyavirales and, structurally, other arboviruses suggests that these findings are broadly applicable to viruses that use a class II fusion mechanism and cause neurologic disease.