In order to understand the pathophysiology of COVID-19, which is still in an explosive epidemic on a global scale, and to develop vaccines and antiviral agents, it is necessary to establish an animal model that can reproduce human symptoms.
Previous studies have shown that hamsters are infected with the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus, which is closely related to the new coronavirus.Therefore, this research group inoculated hamsters with a new type of coronavirus isolated from COVID-19 patients and investigated their proliferation and pathogenicity.

　As a result, the new coronavirus proliferated well in the respiratory organs of hamsters and showed pathogenicity such as weight loss, and hamsters infected with the new coronavirus showed a pathogenic image similar to pneumonia in COVID-19 patients. I understand.

　Next, when it was investigated whether hamsters recovered from the initial infection with the new coronavirus showed resistance to subsequent reinfection, hamsters with a history of infection did not re-infect even after inoculation with the virus.This indicates that if an antibody against the virus is produced in the body at the time of initial infection, the infection or onset can be suppressed even if the virus enters the body again.

　Furthermore, in order to verify the effectiveness of convalescent serum therapy, it was found that when serum collected during the convalescent period was administered to infected hamsters, viral growth in the respiratory tract was significantly suppressed.The results suggest that antibodies against the virus contained in convalescent serum are effective in treating patients with COVID-19.

　Thus, by using hamsters as a model for infected animals of COVID-19, it is expected that the development of therapeutic and preventive methods for this infectious disease will greatly progress.

Paper information:[Proceedings of the American Academy of Sciences] Syrian hamsters as a small animal model for SARS-CoV-2 infection and countermeasure development