Can transgenic mice studies illuminate neurological complications associated with SARS-CoV-2 in humans?
The potentially deadly coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that has swept the world over the last 12 months has not affected animals with corresponding severity. In order to understand the mechanism of severe disease, animal models have been used. This includes a mouse model that expresses human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2) under the cytokeratin 18 promoter (K18-hACE2). A new preprint appearing on the
bioRxiv server indicates that this may not be a faithful model of human lethal infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
In most cases, COVID-19 causes respiratory disease with a wide spectrum of symptom severity, from mild to severe. Critical disease usually terminates in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), often with multi-organ dysfunction. A subset of infected patients also have neurological features, including headache, a