UK B.1.1.7 variant exhibits increased respiratory replication and shedding in nonhuman primates

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Abstract

The continuing emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants calls for regular assessment to identify differences in viral replication, shedding and associated disease. In this study, African green monkeys were infected intranasally with either a contemporary D614G or the UK B.1.1.7 variant. Both variants caused mild respiratory disease with no significant differences in clinical presentation. Significantly higher levels of viral RNA and infectious virus were found in upper and lower respiratory tract samples and tissues from B.1.1.7 infected animals. Interestingly, D614G infected animals showed significantly higher levels of viral RNA and infectious virus in rectal swabs and gastrointestinal tract tissues. Our results indicate that B.1.1.7 infection in African green monkeys is associated with increased respiratory replication and shedding but no disease enhancement similar to human B.1.1.7 cases.

One-Sentence Summary

UK B.1.1.7 infection of African green monkeys exhibits increased respiratory replication and shedding but no disease enhancement

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  1. SciScore for 10.1101/2021.06.11.448134: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsIACUC: Biosafety and ethics: All SARS-CoV-2 studies were approved by the Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) and performed in high biocontainment (BSL3/BSL4) at Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML), NIAID, NIH.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Cell Line AuthenticationContamination: Mycoplasma testing of cell lines and viral stocks is performed regularly, and no mycoplasma was detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Experimental Models: Cell Lines
    SentencesResources
    The supplied passage 2 material was propagated once in Vero E6 cells.
    Vero E6
    suggested: RRID:CVCL_XD71)
    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Statistical analyses: Statistical analysis was performed in Prism 8 (GraphPad, San Diego, CA, USA).
    GraphPad
    suggested: (GraphPad Prism, RRID:SCR_002798)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).


    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.


    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.


    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.


    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.


    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.