Fig. 2: Prophylactic RDV reduces MERS-CoV replication and disease.

a Percent starting weight of 9–12-week-old male and female Ces1c^−/− hDPP4 mice prophylactically administered subcutaneous vehicle or remdesivir (RDV, 25 mg/kg) BID the day prior to infection with either 5E + 04 (vehicle n = 14, RDV n = 14) or 5E + 05 (vehicle n = 14, RDV n = 15) plaque-forming units (pfu) MERS M35C4. Asterisks indicate statistically significant differences (P < 0.05) as determined by two-way ANOVA and Tukey’s multiple comparison test. b Percent survival of each cohort and survival analysis by Mantel–Cox test (P < 0.05, N per group noted in a). c Lung hemorrhage scored on a scale of 0–4, where 0 is a normal pink healthy lung and 4 is a completely dark red lung. On 4 dpi, N = 4/group, and on 6 dpi the remaining animals are plotted. Asterisks indicate statistically significant differences (P < 0.05) as determined by two-way ANOVA and Tukey’s multiple comparison test. d MERS-CoV lung titer on 4 (N = 4) and 6 dpi (all remaining animals). Asterisks indicate statistically significant differences (P < 0.05) as determined by two-way ANOVA and Sidek’s multiple comparison test. For a, c, d, the boxes encompass the 25th to 75th percentile, the line is at the median, while the whiskers represent the range. e Hematoxylin (nuclei, blue) and immunostaining for MERS-CoV antigen (brown) in lung tissue sections from 4 dpi. All photos were taken with the same magnification. The black bar indicates 100 µM scale. Images from representative mice for each group are shown.