Mass Production of COVID-19 'Research Mice' in August

Many animals are sacrificed in the process of investigating the effects of chemical substances on humans, animals, and plants. A representative method is feeding chemicals to fish to examine the accumulation levels of the substances.

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] The government will establish a system capable of mass-producing research mice for securing treatments for the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) by August. Various drugs that have been observed to be effective against COVID-19 at the cellular level are expected to be administered to actual animals to verify their real efficacy. This is anticipated to accelerate the development of COVID-19 treatments and vaccines.

On the 10th, Jeong Byeong-seon, the 1st Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT, visited the (Foundation) National Mouse Phenotyping Project Group to check the progress of developing COVID-19 research mouse models.

The project group plans to mass-produce COVID-19 research mice by the end of August. To develop COVID-19 treatments and vaccines, clinical trials on humans are necessary, but typically preclinical trials on animals are conducted beforehand. In the case of COVID-19, animals that express the hACE2 gene, the COVID-19 infection receptor like humans, and cause lung lesions are required. The project group is developing five types of mice with these characteristics.

Once the research mice are prepared, the speed of developing COVID-19 treatments will increase significantly. Currently, the Korea Pasteur Institute and the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology have shortlisted drug candidates deemed effective for COVID-19 treatment through cellular-level verification.

In addition to the research mice, the project group has secured animal biosafety level 3 (ABSL3) research facilities at various universities to enable verification of the efficacy of candidate drugs. They are also participating in the World Health Organization (WHO) model animal expert group to share international development information on animal models necessary for COVID-19 treatment and vaccine development.

Vice Minister Jeong urged, while inspecting the development status of research mice, "Please promptly secure animal models and distribute them to the field."