Emerg Infect Dis
. 2021 Sep 24;27(12).
doi: 10.3201/eid2712.211621. Online ahead of print.
Postmortem Stability of SARS-CoV-2 in Mouse Lung Tissue
Sophie A Valkenburg, Samuel M S Cheng, Asmaa Hachim, Malik Peiris, John Nicholls
- PMID: 34559046
- DOI: 10.3201/eid2712.211621
Abstract
The infectivity of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in deceased persons and organisms remains unclear. We studied transgenic K18 hACE2 mice to determine the kinetics of virus infectivity after host death. Five days after death, virus infectivity in the lung declined by >96% and RNA copies declined by 48.2%.
Keywords: 2019 novel coronavirus disease; COVID-19; K18 hACE2 mice; RT-PCR; SARS-CoV-2; TCID50; antigen; coronavirus disease; coronaviruses; experimental infection; infectious virus; mice; postmortem; respiratory infections; severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; viruses; zoonoses.