Golden Syrian hamster as a model to study cardiovascular complications associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection
Zaigham Abbas Rizvi, Rajdeep Dalal, Srikanth Sadhu, Akshay Binayke, Jyotsna Dandotiya, Yashwant Kumar, Tripti Shrivastava, Sonu Kumar Gupta, Suruchi Aggarwal, Manas Ranjan Tripathy, Deepak Kumar Rathore, Amit Kumar Yadav, Guruprasad R Medigeshi, Amit Kumar Pandey, Sweety Samal, Shailendra Asthana, Amit Awasthi
Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in the Golden Syrian hamster causes lung pathology that resembles human coronavirus disease (COVID-19). However, extrapulmonary pathologies associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection and post-COVID sequelae remain to be understood. Here, we show, using a hamster model, that the early phase of SARS-CoV-2 infection leads to an acute inflammatory response and lung pathologies, while the late phase of infection causes cardiovascular complications (CVCs) characterized by ventricular wall thickening associated with increased ventricular mass/body mass ratio and interstitial coronary fibrosis. Molecular profiling further substantiated our findings of CVC as SARS-CoV-2-infected hamsters showed elevated levels of serum cardiac troponin I, cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein, and long-chain fatty acid triglycerides. Serum metabolomics profiling of SARS-CoV-2-infected hamsters identified N-acetylneuraminate, a functional metabolite found to be associated with CVC, as a metabolic marker was found to be common between SARS-CoV-2-infected hamsters and COVID-19 patients. Together, we propose hamsters as a suitable animal model to study post-COVID sequelae associated with CVC, which could be extended to therapeutic interventions.