Adenovirus transduction to express human ACE2 causes obesity-specific morbidity in mice, impeding studies on the effect of host nutritional status on SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis.

ABSTRACT: The COVID-19 pandemic has paralyzed the global economy and resulted in millions of deaths globally. People with co-morbidities like obesity, diabetes and hypertension are at an increased risk for severe COVID-19 illness. This is of overwhelming concern because 42% of Americans are obese, 30% are pre-diabetic and 9.4% have clinical diabetes. Here, we investigated the effect of obesity on disease severity following SARS-CoV-2 infection using a well-established mouse model of diet-induced obesity. Diet-induced obese and lean control C57BL/6 N mice, transduced for ACE2 expression using replication-defective adenovirus, were infected with SARS-CoV-2, and monitored for lung pathology, viral titers, and cytokine expression. No significant differences in tissue pathology or viral replication was o

SUBMITTER: Rai P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8414371 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature