Dr. E. Urano and Dr. Y. Yasutomi, OWOH members, have succeeded in establishing a cynomolgus monkey model for pathological analysis of COVID-19.
The pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 is still raging worldwide. Symptom of COVID-19, range from no symptoms to severe symptoms. COVID-19 has shown severe pathogenicity in people with underlying diseases and in elderly people. Therefore, the use of an appropriate animal model is needed to overcome COVID-19. Here, we examined SARS-CoV-2 infection and related pathological conditions in cynomolgus monkeys including monkeys with underlying diseases causing severe pathogenicity such as metabolic disease and monkeys of advanced age monkeys. There were differences between the pathological conditions in young monkeys and elderly monkeys of advanced age with underlying diseases. Overall, the COVID-19 cynomolgus monkey model reflected the pathology in humans and studies using this model should contribute to the elucidation of the complicated pathophysiology of COVID-19 and to the development of vaccines and therapeutic agents. In addition, since advanced age is one of the risk factors for increased severity of several infectious diseases, we believe that studies using various unique animal models such as an advanced age monkey model will be very important for understanding the variations of pathological conditions caused not only by SARS-CoV-2 but also by other pathogens.
Urano, Emiko, et al. “COVID-19 cynomolgus macaque model reflecting human COVID-19 pathological conditions.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences43 (2021).