A Mouse Model for Betacoronavirus Subgroup 2c Using a Bat Coronavirus Strain HKU5 Variant

Agnihothram, Sudhakar; Yount, Boyd L.; Donaldson, Eric F.; Huynh, Jeremy; Menachery, Vineet D.; Gralinski, Lisa E.; Graham, Rachel L.; Becker, Michelle M.; Tomar, Sakshi; Scobey, Trevor D.; Osswald, Heather L.; Whitmore, Alan; Gopal, Robin; Ghosh, Arun K.; Mesecar, Andrew; Zambon, Maria; Heise, Mark; Denison, Mark R.; Baric, Ralph S.

VRP-based S and N vaccination experiments. Young (~5-to 6-weekold) and aged (~1-year-old) mice received, in the left footpad, a prime and a boost of 10 5 PFU of different VRP-based S or N vaccines or Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus adjuvanted particles (VAP) which expressed no transgene as a mock-infection control, with a 3-week interval between the prime and the boost. At 3 weeks after the boost, the animals were moved into the BSL3 facility and allowed to acclimate for 1 week. Then, they were challenged with BtCoV HKU5-SE. All young animals were~13 weeks, and aged animals were 14 months old at the time of challenge.