Modeling Within-Host Dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 Infection: A Case Study in Ferrets.
Viruses
; 13(8)2021 08 18.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1360824
ABSTRACT
The pre-clinical development of antiviral agents involves experimental trials in animals and ferrets as an animal model for the study of SARS-CoV-2. Here, we used mathematical models and experimental data to characterize the within-host infection dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 in ferrets. We also performed a global sensitivity analysis of model parameters impacting the characteristics of the viral infection. We provide estimates of the viral dynamic parameters in ferrets, such as the infection rate, the virus production rate, the infectious virus proportion, the infected cell death rate, the virus clearance rate, as well as other related characteristics, including the basic reproduction number, pre-peak infectious viral growth rate, post-peak infectious viral decay rate, pre-peak infectious viral doubling time, post-peak infectious virus half-life, and the target cell loss in the respiratory tract. These parameters and indices are not significantly different between animals infected with viral strains isolated from the environment and isolated from human hosts, indicating a potential for transmission from fomites. While the infection period in ferrets is relatively short, the similarity observed between our results and previous results in humans supports that ferrets can be an appropriate animal model for SARS-CoV-2 dynamics-related studies, and our estimates provide helpful information for such studies.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Disease Models, Animal
/
Ferrets
/
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Case report
/
Diagnostic study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Animals
/
Humans
Language:
English
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
V13081635
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