Thread by @VirusesImmunity

Amazing work by @BenIsraelow @ericsongg et al👇🏽👇🏽

A versatile mouse model of #COVID19 based on AAV expression of #SARSCoV2 receptor, hACE2 (use it on any genetic background).

Mouse model of SARS-CoV-2

Thread (1/n)

biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Using this model, we found that #SARSCoV2 replicates in the lung of AAV-hACE2-transduced mice and induces leukocyte recruitment to the lung. (2/n)

AAV-hACE2 mice infected with #SARSCoV2 develop antibodies (IgG) against the spike protein that has neutralization capacity within 7 days of infection. (3/n)

Infection by #SARSCoV2 resulted in robust expression of interferon stimulated genes (ISGs). We applied Interferome analysis to see which ISGs belong to those induced by type I, II and III IFNs.

We highly recommend the interferome.org website 😎 by @pjhpauljh

(4/n)

When AAV-hACE2 was applied to IFNAR KO (unable to signal through IFN receptor) or IRF3/7 KO (unable to induce IFNs) mice, we saw some increase in viral load. Importantly, IFN-I also promoted recruitment of inflammatory leukocytes to the #SARSCOV2 infected lung. (5/n)

RNAseq analyses showed that transcriptome signature seen in our mouse model had many overlapping genes as those found in patient lung autopsy gene expression from Blanco-Melo et al. (6/n)

cell.com/cell/pdf/S0092…

Finally, we are so fortunate to work with brilliant and dedicated scientists. This was a great team effort with @tianyangmao @peowenlu Amit Meir @FeimeiL @MiaAlfajaro Jin Wei, Huiping Dong, @rjhomer57 @aaronmring @WilenLab @YaleMed. We hope you find this model useful! (end)