New mouse models offer valuable window into COVID-19 infection

Scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) have developed six lines of humanized mice that can serve as valuable models for studying human cases of COVID-19. According to their new study in eBioMedicine , these mouse models are important for COVID-19 research because their cells were engineered to include two important human molecules that are involved in SARS-CoV-2 infection of human cells—and these humanized mice were generated on two different immunologic backgrounds. The new models can help shed light on how SARS-CoV-2 moves through the body and why different people experience wildly different COVID-19 symptoms.

"With these mouse models, we can model epidemiologically-relevant SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination settings, and we can study all relevant tissues (not just the blood) at different timepoints following infection and/or vaccination," says LJI Professor Sujan Shresta, Ph.D., who co-led the research with LJI Histopathology Core Director Kenneth Kim, Dipl.

ACVP, and the late Kurt Jarnagin, Ph.D., of Synbal, Inc.

Already, these new mouse models have helped scientists capture a clearer picture of how SARS-CoV-2 affects humans. They are also available to the wider COVID-19 research community. "This work is part of LJI's mission to contribute to pandemic preparedness around the world," says Shresta.

Mouse models are a critical tool for understanding infection Shresta's lab is known for producing mouse models to study immune responses to infectious disease.