Animal Model Development for Coronavirus Infection

Animal models provide an important tool to investigate how diseases affect animals/humans and thus help make the decision to take potential therapies from preclinical studies to humans. As a world-leading service provider in preclinical drug discovery, Creative Biolabs is capable of offering high-quality animal model development services to accelerate the drug discovery process for the treatment of coronavirus infection. Based on our advanced disease model platform, our professional scientists are willing to assist you in developing the most appropriate drug candidate for your research.

Coronaviruses and Coronaviruses Infection

Coronaviruses (CoVs), a subfamily of the Coronaviridae family, are positive-strand RNA viruses with the largest genome of all known RNA viruses (≥27 kb). CoVs could infect a wide range of animal species in nature and most are limited in their host range. Human coronaviruses including OC43, 229E, NL63, and HKU1 are generally associated with self-limiting respiratory tract infections. However, zoonotic CoVs including SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 have crossed the species barrier to infect humans and cause severe respiratory infections in humans, indicating that CoVs have been a global threat that does not recognize international borders. Under the pressure of the severe disease and high case fatality rate associated with SARS, MERS and SARS-CoV-2 infection, coronavirus vaccines and antiviral drugs are urgently needed to be developed. Animal models are needed for pathogenesis studies as well as for the evaluation of vaccines and antiviral drugs.

Fig.1 Coronavirus infection cycle. (HASSAN, 2015)

Strategies for the Development of Infectious Disease Models

Animal models of infectious diseases serve two key purposes: 1) to characterize viral pathogenesis, and 2) to evaluate antiviral agents and vaccines. The ideal animal model is one that mimics human disease in sharing the route of infection, increased severity of disease in the corresponding demographic groups and comparable levels of mortality/morbidity. The presence and distribution of viral receptors should be similar to that in humans. The virus should replicate in the selected animal species and a correlation should exist between virus titer and disease severity. Finally, animal models should be carefully assessed and selected to meet experimental goals such as elucidating pathogenesis and evaluating vaccine efficacy.

Coronaviruses Infection Model at Creative Biolabs

Focused on the field of animal disease model development for years, Creative Biolabs has successfully established a top drug efficacy evaluation platform. We are able to offer a series of animal models with different animal species, including but not limited to mice, hamsters, ferrets, rabbits, and NHP. Particularly, our experienced scientists have successfully constructed transgenic animals that can express the human receptors for the study of pathogenesis and for the development of vaccines and antivirals. The services we provide mainly include:

• Animal Models of SARS-CoV
• Animal Models of MERS-CoV
• Animal Model Development for SARS-CoV-2

Creative Biolabs offers a full package of animal model development services for our worldwide clients. With years of experience, our scientists are dedicated to helping you identify the most appropriate model for your research of interest. For more detailed information, please feel free to contact us.

Reference

1. HASSAN, D.A. CHARACTERIZATION OF HUMAN CORONAVIRUSES FROM CHILDREN WITH RESPIRATORY INFECTION IN ERBIL-KURDISTAN REGION OF IRAQ (Doctoral dissertation, HAWLER MEDICAL UNIVERSITY). 2015.

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