Abstract: Objective To establish a disease-syndrome pneumonia mouse model of lung-attacking damp-heat virus caused by external damp-heat stimulation and human coronavirus HCoV-229E virus infection. Methods The animal model of damp-heat epidemic was evaluated in terms of TCM syndrome, lung indexes and viral loads, pathological structure and imaging of the lung, the contents of serum gastrin (Gas), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) in the hypothalamus and muscle glycogen of mice infected with damp-heat virus for different days. Results This mouse model showed that the mice’s diet decreased while water consumption increased, and that their fur became dull and yellow, movements sluggish, and stool loose. The lung index increased (P < 0.01), the viral nucleic acid in the lung was positively expressed, and pathological changes and speckled shadows were observed in the lung tissue. The contents of muscle glycogen, serum gastrin, hypothalamic cAMP and prostaglandin E2 in mice increased significantly after infection (P < 0.05). Conclusion The mouse model of HCoV-229E and damp-heat stimulation established in this study is consistent with clinical symptoms, which can serve as a reliable animal evaluation model for emergency screening or research of drugs for treating viral pneumonia with this syndrome.

Key words: human coronavirus 229E, lung-attacking damp-heat virus, viral pneumonia, traditional Chinese medicine syndrome, animal model