Figure 1
Schematic diagram of the experimental time course and settings of the air-liquid (ALI) device for the alpaca tracheal explant (ATE) model. (A) A schematic overview of the ALI interface set-up and (B) a photo of an ATE (arrow) resting onto an inox gauze within a 6-well culture plate. (C) General overview of the experiment indicating the time points in which explants were collected, cultured, infected, and sampled. Upon necropsy, ATE were isolated from alpacas (n = 3) and cultured in an ALI interface system. ATE were apically infected after 24 h of culture with MERS-CoV Qatar15/2015 strain at three different doses: 102, 103, and 104 TCID50/mL. Explant replicates from each animal were collected for virological, pathological, and immunological assessments at -24, 0, 24, 48 and 72 h respectively.