New technologies are being developed toward the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 to understand its pathogenesis and transmission, to develop therapeutics and vaccines, and to formulate preventive strategies. Animal models are indispensable to understand these processes and develop and test emerging technologies; however, the mechanism of infection for SARS-CoV-2 requires certain similarities to humans that do not exist in common laboratory rodents. Here, we review important elements of viral infection, transmission, and clinical presentation reflected by various animal models readily available or being developed and studied for SARS-CoV-2 to help bioengineers evaluate appropriate preclinical models for their emerging technologies. Importantly, applications of traditional mice and rat models are limited for studying SARS-CoV-2 and development of COVID-19. Non-human primates, Syrian hamsters, ferrets, cats, and engineered chimeras mimic the human infection more closely and hold strong potential as animal models of SARS-CoV-2 infection and progression of resulting human disease.

中文翻译：

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研究针对 SARS-CoV-2 的新兴技术的动物模型。

针对新型冠状病毒 SARS-CoV-2 正在开发新技术，以了解其发病机制和传播，开发治疗方法和疫苗，并制定预防策略。动物模型对于理解这些过程以及开发和测试新兴技术是必不可少的；然而，SARS-CoV-2 的感染机制需要与人类具有某些相似性，而普通实验室啮齿动物中并不存在这种相似性。在这里，我们回顾了各种现成的或正在开发和研究的 SARS-CoV-2 动物模型所反映的病毒感染、传播和临床表现的重要要素，以帮助生物工程师评估适合其新兴技术的临床前模型。重要的是，传统小鼠和大鼠模型在研究 SARS-CoV-2 和 COVID-19 的发展方面的应用受到限制。非人类灵长类动物、叙利亚仓鼠、雪貂、猫和工程嵌合体更接近地模拟人类感染，并且具有作为 SARS-CoV-2 感染和由此产生的人类疾病进展的动物模型的巨大潜力。