Since its emergence in late 2019, SARS-CoV-2 has caused a global public health challenge, and ongoing viral evolution continues to pose challenges to existing vaccines and therapeutic strategies1,2,3. Therefore, further investigation into COVID-19-associated lung injury is essential for elucidating disease mechanisms and advancing therapeutic strategies.
SARS-CoV-2 infection can cause severe lung injury and may even progress to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome4,5. A growing body of evidence suggests that the pathogenesis of COVID-19-associated lung injury is highly complex, with a key hallmark being the dysregulation of immune and inflammatory responses6,7,8,9. On the one hand, SARS-CoV-2 infection can induce an excessive inflammatory response, leading to the massive release of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), thereby triggering a so-called “cytokine storm”10,11, which is considered a major driver of lung injury and disease progression. On the other hand, in the early stage of infection, SARS-CoV-2 can suppress the host IFN-I response through multiple mechanisms, resulting in impaired IFN-I-mediated antiviral immunity12,13,14. Accordingly, a delayed interferon response accompanied by elevated pro-inflammatory cytokine levels is regarded as a characteristic feature of COVID-196,15.
Currently available animal models of COVID-19 largely rely on hACE2 transgenic mice, mouse-adapted viral strains, or other species such as ferrets and nonhuman primates16,17. However, conventional SARS-CoV-2 infection models in mice often fail to fully recapitulate the hyperinflammatory features of COVID-1918,19,20. LPS, a TLR4 agonist, induces robust inflammatory responses and is widely used in acute lung injury models21. Therefore, the SARS-CoV-2 and LPS-induced model described in this study is designed for investigations focusing on COVID-19-associated lung injury, particularly the mechanisms underlying excessive inflammatory activation and impaired antiviral immune responses. Compared with SARS-CoV-2-only models, this approach highlights immune-inflammatory features while preserving viral infection context. This model has considerable potential for investigating immune-inflammatory mechanisms, rather than modeling viral transmission or the complete natural course of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
This protocol outlines the procedural establishment of a SARS-CoV-2 and LPS-induced mouse model of COVID-19-associated lung injury. Given the limitations of existing models in reproducing COVID-19-associated immune-inflammatory dysregulation, this approach provides a practical platform for studying disease mechanisms and evaluating potential therapeutic strategies. The model was systematically evaluated through lung histopathology, viral load, inflammatory cytokines, and IFN-I responses.