Zebrafish models of COVID-19

Abstract

Although COVID-19 has only recently appeared, research studies have already developed and implemented many animal models for deciphering the secrets of the disease and provided insights into the biology of SARS-CoV-2. However, there are several major factors that complicate the study of this virus in model organisms, such as the poor infectivity of clinical isolates of SARS-CoV-2 in some model species, and the absence of a persistent infection, immunopathology, severe acute respiratory distress syndrome, and none of the systemic complications which characterize COVID-19 clinically. Another important limitation is that SARS-CoV-2 mainly causes severe COVID-19 in older people with comorbidities, which represents a serious problem when attempting to use young and immunologically naïve laboratory animals in COVID-19 testing. We review here the main animal models developed so far to study COVID-19 and the unique advantages of the zebrafish model that may help to contribute to understand this disease, in particular to the identification and repurposing of drugs to treat COVID-19, to reveal the mechanism of action and side-effects of Spike-based vaccines, and to decipher the high susceptibility of aged people to COVID-19.

Zebrafish—A Suitable Model for Rapid Translation of Effective Therapies for Pediatric Cancers

“…Zebrafish have also been effectively utilized to model neurodegenerative diseases [56], behavioral disorders [57,58], neuromuscular disorders [59][60][61][62][63], aging-related disorders [64][65][66], hematopoietic disorders [67][68][69][70], renal diseases [71][72][73][74], liver diseases [74][75][76][77], and eye diseases [78][79][80][81], to mention a few. In recent years, zebrafish have also been used to study infectious viral diseases, such as Zika [82] and COVID-19 [83].…”

Inflammation in Development and Aging: Insights from the Zebrafish Model

“…Zebrafish has also been demonstrated to be a reliable model system for studying human viral pathologies, including the most recent coronavirus disease 2019 [13]. For 2 of 20 example, using an adult zebrafish model, it was observed that intranasally delivered SARS-CoV-2 S spike protein caused severe olfactory histopathology, providing key insights for the evaluation of the mechanisms of action and side effects of human intranasally delivered vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 [14].…”

Zebrafish in Lung Cancer Research

“…For instance, zebrafish models of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, using an injection of the virus or viral antigens, have been developed that. These models are invaluable for studying host immune responses, vaccine mechanisms, potential side effects, and increased susceptibility of the elderly to COVID-19 infection [49]. Furthermore, zebrafish-based research on non-pathogenic microorganisms, such as gut microbiome, is flourishing [50].…”