%0 Journal Article %A Coleman, Christopher M. %A Matthews, Krystal L. %A Goicochea, Lindsay %A Frieman, Matthew B. %T Wild-type and innate immune-deficient mice are not susceptible to the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus %D 2014 %J Journal of General Virology, %V 95 %N 2 %P 408-412 %@ 1465-2099 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/vir.0.060640-0 %I Microbiology Society, %X The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a newly emerging highly pathogenic virus causing almost 50 % lethality in infected individuals. The development of a small-animal model is critical for the understanding of this virus and to aid in development of countermeasures against MERS-CoV. We found that BALB/c, 129/SvEv and 129/SvEv STAT1 knockout mice are not permissive to MERS-CoV infection. The lack of infection may be due to the low level of mRNA and protein for the MERS-CoV receptor, dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4), in the lungs of mice. The low level of DPP4 in the lungs likely contributes to the lack of viral replication in these mouse models and suggests that a transgenic mouse model expressing DPP4 to higher levels is necessary to create a mouse model for MERS-CoV. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/vir.0.060640-0