PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Marco Brustolin
AU  - Jordi Rodon
AU  - María Luisa Rodríguez de la Concepción
AU  - Carlos Ávila-Nieto
AU  - Guillermo Cantero
AU  - Mónica Pérez
AU  - Nigeer Te
AU  - Marc Noguera-Julián
AU  - Víctor Guallar
AU  - Alfonso Valencia
AU  - Núria Roca
AU  - Nuria Izquierdo-Useros
AU  - Julià Blanco
AU  - Bonaventura Clotet
AU  - Albert Bensaid
AU  - Jorge Carrillo
AU  - Júlia Vergara-Alert
AU  - Joaquim Segalés
TI  - Protection against reinfection with D614- or G614-SARS-CoV-2 isolates in hamsters
AID  - 10.1101/2021.01.07.425729
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.01.07.425729
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/01/07/2021.01.07.425729.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/01/07/2021.01.07.425729.full
AB  - Reinfections with SARS-CoV-2 have already been documented in humans, although its real incidence is currently unknown. Besides having great impact on public health, this phenomenon raises the question if immunity generated by a single infection is sufficient to provide sterilizing/protective immunity to a subsequent SARS-CoV-2 re-exposure. The Golden Syrian hamster is a manageable animal model to explore immunological mechanisms able to counteract COVID-19, as it recapitulates pathological aspects of mild to moderately affected patients. Here, we report that SARS-CoV-2-inoculated hamsters resolve infection in the upper and lower respiratory tracts within seven days upon inoculation with the Cat01 (G614) SARS-CoV-2 isolate. Three weeks after primary challenge, and despite high titers of neutralizing antibodies, half of the animals were susceptible to reinfection by both identical (Cat01, G614) and variant (WA/1, D614) SARS-CoV-2 isolates. However, upon re-inoculation, only nasal tissues were transiently infected with much lower viral replication than those observed after the first inoculation. These data indicate that a primary SARS-CoV-2 infection is not sufficient to elicit a sterilizing immunity in hamster models but protects against lung disease.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.