Live attenuated vaccination protects aged chimeric ACE2 mice from severe SARS-CoV-2 pathogenicity in vivo
Fig 1
Attenuated replication of LAVNsp16 in K18-hACE2 mice.
B6.Cg-Tg(K18-ACE2)2Prlmn/J mice were infected intranasally with 1,000 PFU of wt or LAVNsp16 virus in 30 µl PBS (n = 4). Animals were sacrificed on day seven postinfection, or when predefined welfare endpoints (clinical score ≥ 20) were reached. Viral genome titers in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) (A), lung- (B) and brain tissue (C) were determined by RT-qPCR and are depicted as mean + /- s.d. overlaid with individual data points. Samples with undetectable viral load were set to 1. (A-C) Statistical analysis was done using Kruskal-Wallis tests and corrected for multiple comparison using the Dunn’s test. (D) As a surrogate for tissue damage, protein concentration in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid was determined by BCA assay. Concentrations are depicted as mean + /- s.d. overlaid with individual data points. Statistical analysis was performed using ordinary one-way ANOVA, followed by Tukey’s correction for multiple comparison. (E) Survival of wt- or LAVNsp16-infected K18-ACE2 mice (n = 4) was monitored over the course of seven days. (F) Weight of wt and LAVNsp16 infected animals (n = 4) is normalized to the initial bodyweight.