Sensitization of Non-permissive Laboratory Mice to SARS-CoV-2 with a Replication-Deficient Adenovirus Expressing Human ACE2

Common laboratory mice such as BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice are not permissive to SARS-CoV2 infection. Sensitization of laboratory mice with Adenovirus express-ing human ACE2 (Ad5-hACE2) provides a rapid model for testing viral interven-tion in vivo. Despite the lack of lethal outcome, Ad5-hACE2-sensitized mice show 20% weight loss on average upon viral challenge with infectious virus being de-tected at the site of sensitization. This protocol describes the sensitization and subsequent infection of common laboratory mice for use in testing anti-viral in-terventions.For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Sun et al. (2020).