Modified mice could aid the quest for vaccines and drugs
Two teams have developed a short cut to generating COVID-19 mouse models: using a harmless virus to make the rodents cells susceptible to infection.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus invades a human cell by attaching to receptors, including one called ACE2, on its surface. Mice have a different version of ACE2, making them impervious to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Transgenic mice carrying the human version of ACE2 are susceptible to infection but are scarce.

To develop a more widely available mouse model, a team led by Michael Diamond at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and another by Jincun Zhao at the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University in China used adenoviruses — a workhorse of gene therapy — to deliver the human ACE2 gene to the lung cells of mice. After exposure to SARS-CoV-2, these mice lost weight and developed pneumonia.
Nature 2020-6-12
基因編輯小鼠能成為新型冠狀病毒疫苗與藥物研發(fā)的助力
兩個(gè)研究團(tuán)隊(duì)開發(fā)了一種建立新型冠狀病毒的小鼠感染模型的簡(jiǎn)單方法：使用無害的病毒使嚙齒動(dòng)物細(xì)胞更易受感染。
新型冠狀病毒依靠與細(xì)胞表面的蛋白受體結(jié)合侵入人體細(xì)胞，蛋白受體包括一種叫ACE2*。小鼠有不同構(gòu)型的ACE2受體，這使小鼠細(xì)胞更加難以被新型冠狀病毒滲透與感染。帶有人的轉(zhuǎn)基因小鼠相較普通小鼠更易感染，但較為少見。
為了建立更廣泛可得的的小鼠感染模型，一支由密蘇里州，圣路易斯市，華盛頓大學(xué)的麥克?戴蒙德帶領(lǐng)的團(tuán)隊(duì)與中國廣州醫(yī)科大學(xué)附屬第一醫(yī)院的趙金存教授的團(tuán)隊(duì)使用腺病毒—一種基因療法的主力，用來將人的ACE2基因?qū)肽繕?biāo)小鼠的肺部細(xì)胞。在暴露在有新型冠狀病毒的環(huán)境下后，這種小鼠體重降低并表現(xiàn)出肺炎癥狀。

>impervious抗?jié)B透的—previous 透水的，可通過的 adj.
>susceptible易受影響的，易感的 adj.
?adenoviruses 腺病毒n.
>Affiliate 附屬 v. ?[Affiliate with 與...產(chǎn)生關(guān)聯(lián)（正式）近義：join up with、associate with]
>workhorse 主力，功臣 n.
*血管緊張素轉(zhuǎn)化酶2，新型冠狀病毒表面受體，與SARS病毒受體相同

-原文：https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00502-w