Journal: EMBO Molecular Medicine
Article Title: An ACE2 decoy can be administered by inhalation and potently targets omicron variants of SARS‐CoV ‐2
doi: 10.15252/emmm.202216109
Figure Lengend Snippet: A K18‐hACE2 transgenic mice were inoculated with SARS‐CoV‐2 isolate /Japan/TY7‐503/2021 (gamma variant) at 1 × 10 4 PFU. sACE2 2 .v2.4‐IgG1 (7.5 ml at 8.3 mg/ml in PBS) was delivered to the mice by a nebulizer in 25 min at 12 h, 48 h, and 84 h postinoculation. PBS was aerosol delivered as control. B, C Survival (B) and weight loss (C). N = 10 mice for each group. The P‐value of the survival curve by the Gehan–Breslow–Wilcoxon test is shown. Error bars for mouse weight are centered on the mean and show SEM. D Viral load in the lung was measured by RT–qPCR on Day 7. The mRNA expression levels of SARS‐CoV‐2 Spike, Nsp, and Rdrp are normalized to the housekeeping gene peptidylprolyl isomerase A (Ppia). Data are presented as mean ± SEM, N = 4 mice per group. * P < 0.05 by the unpaired Student's t ‐test with two‐sided. E Cytokine expression levels of Tnfa, Ifng, Il1a, and Il1b were measured by RT–qPCR normalized by Ppia. Data are presented as mean ± SEM, N = 4 mice per group. * P < 0.05 by the unpaired Student's t ‐test with two‐sided. F, G Representative H&E staining of lung sections on Day 7 postinoculation for control PBS group (F) and inhalation of the sACE2 2 .v2.4‐IgG1 group (G). Images at left are low magnifications. Boxed regions (black) are shown at higher magnification on the right. Lungs from 4 independent mice were sectioned, stained, and imaged.
Article Snippet: Plasmids for sACE2 2 ‐IgG1 (Addgene #154104), sACE2 2 .v2.4‐IgG1 (#154106), sACE2(18‐615)‐8his (#149268), sACE2(18‐615).v2.4‐8his (#149664), and Wuhan RBD‐8his (#145145) are available from Addgene.
Techniques: Transgenic Assay, Variant Assay, Aerosol, Control, Quantitative RT-PCR, Expressing, Staining