Wild-type and innate immune-deficient mice are not susceptible to the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus

作者：Christopher M. Coleman, Krystal Matthews, Lindsay Goicochea, Matthew B. Frieman · 发表于：Journal of General Virology · 年份：2013 · DOI：10.1099/vir.0.060640-0 · 被引用次数：126 · 研究领域：SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research、Animal Virus Infections Studies、Respiratory viral infections research

The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a newly emerging highly pathogenic virus causing almost 50 % lethality in infected individuals. The development of a small-animal model is critical for the understanding of this virus and to aid in development of countermeasures against MERS-CoV. We found that BALB/c, 129/SvEv and 129/SvEv STAT1 knockout mice are not permissive to MERS-CoV infection. The lack of infection may be due to the low level of mRNA and protein for the MERS-CoV receptor, dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4), in the lungs of mice. The low level of DPP4 in the lungs likely contributes to the lack of viral replication in these mouse models and suggests that a transgenic mouse model expressing DPP4 to higher levels is necessary to create a mouse model for MERS-CoV.