Common Laboratory Mice Are Susceptible to Infection with the SARS-CoV-2 Beta Variant

Small animal models are of crucial importance for assessing COVID-19 countermeasures. Common laboratory mice would be well-suited for this purpose but are not susceptible to infection with wild-type SARS-CoV-2. However, the development of mouse-adapted virus strains has revealed key mutations in the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Viruses Vol. 13; no. 11; p. 2263
Main Authors: Kant, Ravi, Kareinen, Lauri, Smura, Teemu, Freitag, Tobias L., Jha, Sawan Kumar, Alitalo, Kari, Meri, Seppo, Sironen, Tarja, Saksela, Kalle, Strandin, Tomas, Kipar, Anja, Vapalahti, Olli
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 11.11.2021
MDPI
Subjects:
Animal models
Animals
Antibodies
Antiviral agents
Antiviral drugs
Brain - virology
COVID-19
COVID-19 - pathology
COVID-19 - virology
COVID-19 infection
Disease Models, Animal
disease susceptibility
Female
Infections
Infectivity
Inflammation
Laboratories
Laboratory animals
laboratory mice
Lung - pathology
Lung - virology
Lungs
Male
Mice
Mice, Inbred BALB C
Mutation
Nose - virology
pathogenicity
Pulmonary Alveoli - pathology
RNA polymerase
SARS-CoV-2 - isolation & purification
SARS-CoV-2 beta variants
SARS-CoV-2 variants
SARS-CoV2
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Spike protein
Viruses
St Louis Missouri
United States > US
COVID-19
SARS-CoV2
SARS-CoV-2 variants
infections
laboratory mice
common laboratory mice
SARS-CoV-2 beta variants
ISSN:1999-4915, 1999-4915
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Small animal models are of crucial importance for assessing COVID-19 countermeasures. Common laboratory mice would be well-suited for this purpose but are not susceptible to infection with wild-type SARS-CoV-2. However, the development of mouse-adapted virus strains has revealed key mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that increase infectivity, and interestingly, many of these mutations are also present in naturally occurring SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern. This suggests that these variants might have the ability to infect common laboratory mice. Herein we show that the SARS-CoV-2 beta variant attains infectibility to BALB/c mice and causes pulmonary changes within 2–3 days post infection, consistent with results seen in other murine models of COVID-19, at a reasonable virus dose (2 × 105 PFU). The findings suggest that common laboratory mice can serve as the animal model of choice for testing the effectiveness of antiviral drugs and vaccines against SARS-CoV-2.
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These authors contributed equally to this work.
ISSN:1999-4915
1999-4915
DOI:10.3390/v13112263