FIGURE 6.
Effect of repeated low dose modified siR‐7‐EM‐peptide dendrimer KK‐46 complexes in Syrian hamsters. Syrian hamsters were infected with SARS‐CoV‐2 at a dose of 105 PFU/animal and exposed to different doses (0.175, 0.35 and 1.0 mg/kg of siR‐7‐EM/KK‐46 aerosol) twice a day with two hours interval. Two and six days after infection animals were sacrificed and viral titers (A) and macroscopic evaluation and scoring of the histopathology lesions (B) in the lung were analyzed. Orally administrated Favipiravir (1 h after infection, a dose of 1.2 mg/animal was administered twice a day, and then daily during 6 days after infection 0.4 mg/animal twice a day) served as positive control. The results are expressed as plaque forming units (PFU) per mL (A) or scores (B) obtained for histological analysis of pathologic lung alterations. Differences between multiple groups were estimated using a Kruskal–Wallis test followed by post‐hoc testing (if the Kruskal–Wallis was significant) using un‐paired Mann–Whitney U tests. Bars show medians of one experiment (five animals per group) + SDs. Data are from one experiment representative of two independent experiments with five hamsters/group are shown. Footnotes: */† represents difference with hamsters infected with SARS‐CoV‐2 and assessed at day two/six after infection, respectively. **††p < 0.01