The K18-Human ACE2 Transgenic Mouse Model Recapitulates Non-severe and Severe COVID-19 in Response to an Infectious Dose of the SARS-CoV-2 Virus
Wenjuan Dong, Heather Mead, Lei Tian, Jun‐Gyu Park, Juan Ignacio García, Sierra A. Jaramillo, Tasha Barr, Daniel S. Kollath, Vanessa K. Coyne, Nathan E. Stone, Ashley Jones, Jianying Zhang, Aimin Li, Li‐Shu Wang, Martha Milanes‐Yearsley, Jordi B. Torrelles, Luis Martínez‐Sobrido, Paul Keim, Bridget M. Barker, Michael A. Caligiuri, Jianhua Yu
Abstract
The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has reached nearly 240 million cases, caused nearly 5 million deaths worldwide as of October 2021, and has raised an urgent need for the development of novel drugs and therapeutics to prevent the spread and pathogenesis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). To achieve this goal, an animal model that recapitulates the features of human COVID-19 disease progress and pathogenesis is greatly needed.