U.S. researchers develop mouse models revealing COVID-19 infection

LOS ANGELES | Xinhua | U.S. researchers have developed six lines of humanized mice that can serve as valuable models for studying human cases of COVID-19, according to a newly published study.

These mouse models, developed by researchers at La Jolla Institute for Immunology, 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, according to the study published Monday in eBioMedicine.

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,” said Sujan Shresta, a professor at La Jolla Institute for Immunology and a co-leader of the study. ■