In tryptophan metabolism, Ido1 and Kynu showed negative and positive correlations with TNFSF10, respectively, while Cyp1a1 exhibited negative correlations with CCL5 and CSF1.These results indicate that SARS-CoV-2 variant infection triggers an inflammatory response associated with arginine biosynthesis, glutathione metabolism and tryptophan metabolism in the lungs of hamsters by modulating metabolite and transcript levels, and the delta and omicron variant viruses exert distinct inflammatory responses on hamster lung tissue, as evidenced by different correlations with cytokines. The gene discussed is KYNU; the disease is infection.