title: Wild-type and innate immune-deficient mice are not susceptible to the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus.
abstract: The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a newly emerging highly pathogenic virus causing almost 50 % lethality in infected individuals. The development of a small-animal model is critical for the understanding of this virus and to aid in development of countermeasures against MERS-CoV. We found that BALB/c, 129/SvEv and 129/SvEv STAT1 knockout mice are not permissive to MERS-CoV infection. The lack of infection may be due to the low level of mRNA and protein for the MERS-CoV receptor, dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4), in the lungs of mice. The low level of DPP4 in the lungs likely contributes to the lack of viral replication in these mouse models and suggests that a transgenic mouse model expressing DPP4 to higher levels is necessary to create a mouse model for MERS-CoV.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Maryland at Baltimore, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Coleman
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Maryland at Baltimore, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Krystal L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Matthews
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Lindsay
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Goicochea
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Maryland at Baltimore, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Matthew B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Frieman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003332:Coronaviridae / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D060467:Disease Resistance; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D016513:Mice, SCID