Disruption of Adaptive Immunity Enhances Disease in SARS-CoV-2-Infected Syrian Hamsters.

ABSTRACT: Animal models recapitulating human COVID-19 disease, especially severe disease, are urgently needed to understand pathogenesis and to evaluate candidate vaccines and therapeutics. Here, we develop novel severe-disease animal models for COVID-19 involving disruption of adaptive immunity in Syrian hamsters. Cyclophosphamide (CyP) immunosuppressed or RAG2 knockout (KO) hamsters were exposed to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by the respiratory route. Both the CyP-treated and RAG2 KO hamsters developed clinical signs of disease that were more severe than those in immunocompetent hamsters, notably weight loss, viral loads, and fatality (RAG2 KO only). Disease was prolonged in transiently immunosuppressed hamsters and was uniformly lethal in R

SUBMITTER: Brocato RL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7592214 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature