Lethal Infection of K18- hACE2 Mice Infected with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus

The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), caused by a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV), resulted in substantial morbidity, mortality, and economic losses during the 2003 epidemic. While SARS-CoV infection has not recurred to a significant extent since 2003, it still remains a potential threat. Understanding of SARS and development of therapeutic approaches have been hampered by the absence of an animal model that mimics the human disease and is reproducible. Here we show that transgenic mice that express the SARS-CoV receptor (human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 [hACE2]) in airway and other epithelia develop a rapidly lethal infection after intranasal inoculation with a human strain of the virus. Infection…

• CF
  Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
• NI
  National Institutes of Health

  Awards: PO1 AI060699, P30 DK, AI060699, P30 DK-54759