Cyagen White Paper: Mouse Models for SARS - Construction Strategies and Applications

Dr. Steve Yu

Recent news continues to show that the COVID-19 pandemic situation globally is far from being over. Across the entire world, the pneumonia-like COVID-19 caused by the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) remains a huge medical challenge. To provide a wholistic guide for developing clinical treatments, vaccines, and antiviral drugs, it is of great significance to study the interaction mechanisms between severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronaviruses and host molecules, while also exploring the pathogenic process of coronaviruses. Accurate animal models are necessary for verifying the pathogenesis and immune mechanisms of the illness to accelerate research across vaccine development, new drug development, gene therapy, and more. 

Exclusive Cyagen White Paper – Mouse Models for SARS - Construction Strategies and Applications

Cyagen recently put together an exclusive White Paper that covers the construction strategies and applications of SARS-CoV so far, as well as its research progress - to provide inspirations for the study of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). The main content of the White Paper is as follows：

1. What are the advantages of using mouse models to study SARS coronavirus diseases?

2. What are the strategies for mouse models used to evaluate the pathogenicity of SARS-CoV infection?

 (1) Mouse models of SARS-CoV infection fall into three main classifications based on construction strategy and methods:

1. Direct infection of inbred mice with human-susceptible SARS-CoVs.
2. Application of gene-editing technology: knockout related genes in mice or transfer human host cell virus-binding receptors (such as ACE2) to develop humanized mouse models.
3. Adapt wild-type SARS-CoVs to mice by repeated exposure to obtain a more mouse-adapted viral pathogenesis, thereby establishing a virus-infected mouse model that can present obvious clinical phenotypes.
4. Application of Collaborative Cross (CC) technology to establish genetically diverse mouse strains to research how genetic diversity within host species may contribute to susceptibility and clinical outcome of viral pathogenesis.

(2) The main research progress of the mouse model for SARS-CoV infection 

1. Direct application of inbred strain mouse model to study the pathogenicity of SARS virus
2. Application of gene-editing technology to construct SARS-CoV infection mouse model
3. Apply adaptive experimental evolution to obtain SARS-CoV mutant virulent strains
4. Application of Collaborative Cross (CC) technology to establish genetically diverse mouse strains

3. Advances in the application of mouse models in the study of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2)

1. Transgenic hACE2 Mouse Model
2. Targeted Insertion of hACE2 Mouse Model
3. Develop Mouse Model with Adenovirus Vector

As a leading provider of professional genetically modified animal model services, Cyagen’s research and development (R&D) team has prioritized the development of mouse models catered to studying SARS-CoV-2 infections since the early stages of the outbreak. With our proprietary TurboKnockout^® Gene Targeting services and optimized CRISPR technology, we have simultaneously prepared hACE2 mice across multiple background strains, including BALB/c and C57BL/6J. Additionally, Cyagen continues to develop comprehensive gene editing methods and design construction strategies catered to different research purposes and applications.

It has been half a year since the outbreak of COVID-19 and the development of vaccines and antiviral drugs has made great progress. Although most studies cannot be used immediately for the treatment of patients, it is obvious that the incremental research on SARS-CoV-2 is of vital importance in the process of identifying treatments and preventatives for COVID-19. In this process, mouse models have able to recapitulate aspects of COVID-19 pathology in humans, making them valuable tools for COVID-19 immunology research.

Download Free Copy of White Paper!

About Cyagen

In under 15 years since its founding, Cyagen has become a leading provider of custom mouse and rat models – delivering over 50,000 models to researchers worldwide and receiving over 3,600 peer-reviewed citations. We are known to provide the industry’s best price, quality and turnaround time on all our model generation services，and top-quality services we provide are backed by our industry-best 100% money-back guarantee.