In Vivo Preclinical Platforms to Study Coronavirus Infection

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has increased the attention to viral diseases due to the global rapid dissemination, high transmissibility, and potential lethality. In these situations, the development of pre-clinical models is crucial to better understand the molecular aspects of the pathogenesis of such condition. Thus, animal models of Betacoronavirus infection that mimic disease features observed during COVID-19 in humans are fundamental tools to uncover disease mechanisms. In this chapter, we describe in detail the animal models and the pathogenesis of the disease caused by different Betacoronaviruses in rodents. The main differences between the murine models used for coronavirus studies are discussed, such as the mouse model for mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) infection as well as humanized model (K18-hACE2), as well as hamster models for infection with SARS-CoV-2. Methods concerning virus manipulation and animal infection are also described in detail, along with important notes on different techniques to assess clinical outcomes and protocols of sample collection for further biochemical, immune, microbiological and histopathological examination.