Publication date: Jul 10, 2023
Immunocompromised individuals have an increased risk of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and severe outcomes, but we pay less attention to these people. Athymic nude mice are a murine strain with a spontaneous deficiency of the Foxn1 gene, which can result in thymic degeneration or its absence, leading to immunosuppression and a decrease in the number of T cells, and are widely used in preclinical evaluations of disease in immunocompromised populations. We investigated the protection of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) inactivated vaccine (CoronaVac) against the infection of wild-type SARS-CoV-2 (WH-09) or Omicron variant utilizing a hybrid-type nude-hACE2 mouse model. Compared with nude-hACE2/W mice, the viral load in the brain and lung tissue of nude-hACE2 mice (nude-hACE2/WV) infected with WH-09 after vaccination significantly decreased, and the histopathological changes were also reduced. The viral load in the brain and lung tissue of nude-hACE2 mice (nude-hACE2/OV) infected with the Omicron variant after vaccination was lower than that in nude-hACE2/O, but histopathological symptoms did not improve significantly. CoronaVac provides some protection against infection of both WH-09 and the Omicron variant in the nude-hACE2 mice. Our findings aimed to provide a reference for vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 in immunocompromised populations.
| Concepts | Keywords |
|---|---|
| Coronavirus | immunocompromised |
| Histopathological | nude-hACE2 mice |
| Mice | protection |
| Spontaneous | |
| Vaccination |
Semantics
| Type | Source | Name |
|---|---|---|
| disease | VO | CoronaVac |
| disease | MESH | infection |
| disease | VO | Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 |
| disease | VO | gene |
| disease | IDO | immunosuppression |
| disease | MESH | coronavirus disease 2019 |
| disease | VO | inactivated vaccine |
| disease | VO | vaccination |