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Syrian Golden Hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) model of coronavirus infection

Previously, the use of Syrian golden hamsters as an experimental animal model showed that these animals support replication of human coronavirus following infection¹. As found by Imai et al.  SARS-CoV-2 isolates replicate efficiently in the lungs of Syrian golden hamsters and causes severe pathological lesions in the lungs of these animals similar to commonly reported imaging features of COVID-19 patients with pneumonia². SARS-CoV-2 infected hamsters mount neutralizing antibody responses against virus and demonstrate protection against rechallenge with SARS-CoV-2. This translational model will help researchers address important questions regarding coronavirus pathogenesis and allow for testing of therapeutic compounds of diverse modality aiming to reduce severe disease.

References

1. Roberts A, Vogel L, Guarner J, Hayes N, Murphy B, Zaki S, Subbarao K. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus infection of golden Syrian hamsters. J Virol. 2005 Jan;79(1):503-11. doi: 10.1128/JVI.79.1.503-511.2005. PMID: 15596843; PMCID: PMC538722.

2. Imai M, Iwatsuki-Horimoto K, Hatta M, Loeber S, Halfmann PJ, Nakajima N, Watanabe T, Ujie M, Takahashi K, Ito M, Yamada S, Fan S, Chiba S, Kuroda M, Guan L, Takada K, Armbrust T, Balogh A, Furusawa Y, Okuda M, Ueki H, Yasuhara A, Sakai-Tagawa Y, Lopes TJS, Kiso M, Yamayoshi S, Kinoshita N, Ohmagari N, Hattori SI, Takeda M, Mitsuya H, Krammer F, Suzuki T, Kawaoka Y. Syrian hamsters as a small animal model for SARS-CoV-2 infection and countermeasure development. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Jul 14;117(28):16587-16595. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2009799117. Epub 2020 Jun 22. PMID: 32571934; PMCID: PMC7368255.