Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology (Oct 2021)

Monitoring Group Activity of Hamsters and Mice as a Novel Tool to Evaluate COVID-19 Progression, Convalescence, and rVSV-ΔG-Spike Vaccination Efficacy

  • Sharon Melamed,
  • Boaz Politi,
  • Ettie Grauer,
  • Hagit Achdout,
  • Moshe Aftalion,
  • David Gur,
  • Hadas Tamir,
  • Yfat Yahalom-Ronen,
  • Shlomy Maimon,
  • Efi Yitzhak,
  • Shay Weiss,
  • Amir Rosner,
  • Noam Erez,
  • Shmuel Yitzhaki,
  • Shmuel C Shapira,
  • Nir Paran,
  • Emanuelle Mamroud,
  • Yaron Vagima,
  • Tomer Israely

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2021.737627
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9

Abstract

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The COVID-19 pandemic initiated a worldwide race toward the development of treatments and vaccines. Small animal models included the Syrian golden hamster and the K18-hACE2 mice infected with SARS-CoV-2 to display a disease state with some aspects of human COVID-19. A group activity of animals in their home cage continuously monitored by the HCMS100 (Home cage Monitoring System 100) was used as a sensitive marker of disease, successfully detecting morbidity symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection in hamsters and in K18-hACE2 mice. COVID-19 convalescent hamsters rechallenged with SARS-CoV-2 exhibited minor reduction in group activity compared to naive hamsters. To evaluate the rVSV-ΔG-spike vaccination efficacy against SARS-CoV-2, we used the HCMS100 to monitor the group activity of hamsters in their home cage. A single-dose rVSV-ΔG-spike vaccination of the immunized group showed a faster recovery than the nonimmunized infected hamsters, substantiating the efficacy of rVSV-ΔG-spike vaccine. HCMS100 offers nonintrusive, hands-free monitoring of a number of home cages of hamsters or mice modeling COVID-19.

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