Sustained lung inflammation post SARS-CoV-2 infection in mice is associated with increased pulmonary T cells
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Many SARS-CoV-2 patients experience chronic pulmonary symptoms and long-term inflammation despite viral clearance. While these clinical manifestations have been linked to the dysregulation of the adaptive immune response, the underlying immunopathology remains poorly understood due to a lack of suitable animal models. To investigate long-term pulmonary consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection, we used a genetic cross of 129 mice and C57BL/6 (B6)-K18-hACE2 transgene mice, a model previously shown to survive infection. 129xB6-K18-hACE2 mice or littermate controls were infected with a low dose (5 × 102 PFU) of ancestral SARS-CoV-2. Complete viral clearance and full recovery from weight loss occurred by day 8 post-infection. However, prolonged inflammation in the lung and airways persisted up to day 28 post-infection and was associated with the presence of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, particularly CD8+ effector T cells. This model may therefore prove valuable for further understanding of drivers of long-term lung inflammation and for testing therapeutic strategies and clinically relevant interventions that can target long-term pulmonary inflammation following SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Date Issued
2025-08-01
Date Acceptance
2025-08-11
Citation
European Journal of Immunology, 2025, 55
ISSN
0014-2980
Publisher
Wiley
Journal / Book Title
European Journal of Immunology
Volume
55
Copyright Statement
© 2025 The Author(s). European Journal of Immunology published by Wiley-VCH GmbH. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
e70043
Date Publish Online
2025-08-24