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Seldeslachts L, Cawthorne C, Kaptein SF, Boudewijns R, Thibaut HJ, Sanchez Felipe L, Sharma S, Schramm G, Weynand B, Dallmeier K, Vande Velde G. Use of Micro-Computed Tomography to Visualize and Quantify COVID-19 Vaccine Efficiency in Free-Breathing Hamsters. Methods Mol Biol 2021; 2410:177-192. [PMID: 34914047 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1884-4_8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has impacted the health of humanity after the outbreak in Hubei, China in late December 2019. Ever since, it has taken unprecedented proportions and rapidity causing over a million fatal cases. Recently, a robust Syrian golden hamster model recapitulating COVID-19 was developed in search for effective therapeutics and vaccine candidates. However, overt clinical disease symptoms were largely absent despite high levels of virus replication and associated pathology in the respiratory tract. Therefore, we used micro-computed tomography (μCT) to longitudinally visualize lung pathology and to preclinically assess candidate vaccines. μCT proved to be crucial to quantify and noninvasively monitor disease progression, to evaluate candidate vaccine efficacy, and to improve screening efforts by allowing longitudinal data without harming live animals. Here, we give a comprehensive guide on how to use low-dose high-resolution μCT to follow-up SARS-CoV-2-induced disease and test the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccine candidates in hamsters. Our approach can likewise be applied for the preclinical assessment of antiviral and anti-inflammatory drug treatments in vivo.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Seldeslachts
- KU Leuven Department of Imaging and Pathology, Biomedical MRI/MoSAIC, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Christopher Cawthorne
- KU Leuven Department of Imaging and Pathology, Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Suzanne F Kaptein
- Virology and Chemotherapy, Molecular Vaccinology & Vaccine Discovery, KU Leuven Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, Rega Institute, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Robbert Boudewijns
- Virology and Chemotherapy, Molecular Vaccinology & Vaccine Discovery, KU Leuven Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, Rega Institute, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Hendrik Jan Thibaut
- Virology and Chemotherapy, Molecular Vaccinology & Vaccine Discovery, KU Leuven Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, Rega Institute, Leuven, Belgium.,Translational Platform Virology and Chemotherapy (TPVC), KU Leuven Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, Rega Institute, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Lorena Sanchez Felipe
- Virology and Chemotherapy, Molecular Vaccinology & Vaccine Discovery, KU Leuven Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, Rega Institute, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Sapna Sharma
- Virology and Chemotherapy, Molecular Vaccinology & Vaccine Discovery, KU Leuven Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, Rega Institute, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Georg Schramm
- KU Leuven Department of Imaging and Pathology, Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Birgit Weynand
- KU Leuven Department of Imaging and Pathology, Division of Translational Cell and Tissue Research, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Kai Dallmeier
- Virology and Chemotherapy, Molecular Vaccinology & Vaccine Discovery, KU Leuven Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, Rega Institute, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Greetje Vande Velde
- KU Leuven Department of Imaging and Pathology, Biomedical MRI/MoSAIC, Leuven, Belgium.
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