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Viruses . Modeling SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Mice Using Lentiviral hACE2 Vectors Infers Two Modes of Immune Responses to SARS-CoV-2 Infection

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  • Viruses . Modeling SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Mice Using Lentiviral hACE2 Vectors Infers Two Modes of Immune Responses to SARS-CoV-2 Infection


    Viruses


    . 2021 Dec 21;14(1):11.
    doi: 10.3390/v14010011.
    Modeling SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Mice Using Lentiviral hACE2 Vectors Infers Two Modes of Immune Responses to SARS-CoV-2 Infection


    Chaja Katzman 1 , Tomer Israely 2 , Sharon Melamed 2 , Boaz Politi 2 , Assa Sittner 2 , Yfat Yahalom-Ronen 2 , Shay Weiss 2 , Reem Abu Rass 3 , Rachel Zamostiano 3 , Eran Bacharach 3 , Marcelo Ehrlich 3 , Nir Paran 2 , Lior Nissim 1



    Affiliations

    Abstract

    Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) caused a severe global pandemic. Mice models are essential to investigate infection pathology, antiviral drugs, and vaccine development. However, wild-type mice lack the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2) that mediates SARS-CoV-2 entry into human cells and consequently are not susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection. hACE2 transgenic mice could provide an efficient COVID-19 model, but are not always readily available, and practically restricted to specific strains. Therefore, there is a dearth of additional mouse models for SARS-CoV-2 infection. We applied lentiviral vectors to generate hACE2 expression in interferon receptor knock-out (IFNAR1-/-) mice. Lenti-hACE2 transduction supported SARS-CoV-2 replication in vivo, simulating mild acute lung disease. Gene expression analysis revealed two modes of immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection: one in response to the exposure of mouse lungs to SARS-CoV-2 particles in the absence of productive viral replication, and the second in response to productive SARS-CoV-2 infection. Our results infer that immune response to immunogenic elements on incoming virus or in productively infected cells stimulate diverse immune effectors, even in absence of type I IFN signaling. Our findings should contribute to a better understanding of the immune response triggered by SARS-CoV-2 and to further elucidate COVID-19.

    Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; hACE2; immune response; lentivirus; mouse model.

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