On Oct. 26, 2020, Taconic Biosciences announced immediate humanized ACE2 mouse model availability for COVID-19 research.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, uses the ACE2 receptor to enter cells. Due to differences between the mouse and human ACE2 receptors, normal laboratory mice cannot be infected with SARS-CoV2. Transgenic mice expressing the human ACE2 receptor overcome this challenge and thus are critical for COVID-19 research. Taconic’s hACE2 AC70 mouse model is susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 and displays symptoms upon infection.

Animal models play a vital role in drug discovery, from studying the basic disease characteristics to preclinical safety and efficacy testing. Although SARS-CoV-2 vaccine development is underway, new animal models that address different areas of the drug discovery spectrum are still needed. Global implementation of successful vaccines will take time and may not provide 100% protection against the disease, necessitating continued research on targeted therapeutic options to treat COVID-19 patients. The hACE2 AC70 mouse is valuable because it has utility in both early and late stage drug discovery research. According to a recent Nature article by the members of the World Health Organization expert group on COVID-19 modeling (WHO-COM), “Continued refinement and development of animal models for COVID-19 will contribute to the development of vaccines, therapeutic agents and other countermeasures.”

Study ready cohorts of animals were available for immediate ordering.