Mice infected with glycosylated ORF8 show mild tissue injury.

(A) Weight change of hACE2 mice treated with PBS, unglycosylated ORF8, synthetic N-linked-glycosylated ORF8 proteins, or unglycosylated ORF8 and IL17RA antibody. Data are shown as the mean ± s.e.m. (B) Histologic scoring of lungs obtained from hACE2 mice at 7 dpi in Fig 5E. (C, D) The release of cytokines and chemokines in lungs (C) and livers (D) were detected by ELISA at 14 dpi. (E) Histologic scoring of lungs obtained from hamsters at 7 dpi in Fig 5I. (F) Viral genomic RNA in nasal wash, trachea and lungs obtained from hamsters infected with SARS-CoV-2 or ORF8-deleted SARS-CoV-2 variant at 2, 4 and 7 dpi were detected by qRT-PCR. (G) Viral titers in lungs obtained from hamsters infected with SARS-CoV-2 or ORF8-deleted SARS-CoV-2 variant at 2, 4 and 7 dpi were detected by TCID₅₀ assay. LOD, limit of detection. Data are shown as the mean ± s.e.m. of n = 6 biological replicates (B-G). One-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni post hoc test was used for data analysis. *, p < 0.05, **, p < 0.01. Abbreviations: n.s., not significant.

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