The Emergence of Human Coronavirus EMC: How Scared Should We Be?

Overview

Journal mBio

Publisher American Society for Microbiology

Specialty Microbiology

Date 2013 Apr 11

PMID 23572553

Citations 4

Authors

Renee W Y Chan

Leo L M Poon

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

A novel betacoronavirus, human coronavirus (HCoV-EMC), has recently been detected in humans with severe respiratory disease. Further characterization of HCoV-EMC suggests that this virus is different from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) because it is able to replicate in multiple mammalian cell lines and it does not use angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 as a receptor to achieve infection. Additional research is urgently needed to better understand the pathogenicity and tissue tropism of this virus in humans. In their recent study published in mBio, Kindler et al. shed some light on these important topics (E. Kindler, H. R. Jónsdóttir, M. Muth, O. J. Hamming, R. Hartmann, R. Rodriguez, R. Geffers, R. A. Fouchier, C. Drosten, M. A. Müller, R. Dijkman, and V. Thiel, mBio 4[1]:e00611-12, 2013). These authors report the use of differentiated pseudostratified human primary airway epithelial cells, an in vitro model with high physiological relevance to the human airway epithelium, to characterize the cellular tropism of HCoV-EMC. More importantly, the authors demonstrate the potential use of type I and type III interferons (IFNs) to control viral infection.

Citing Articles

Evolution, Ecology, and Zoonotic Transmission of Betacoronaviruses: A Review.

Jelinek H, Mousa M, Alefishat E, Osman W, Spence I, Bu D Front Vet Sci. 2021; 8:644414.

PMID: 34095271 PMC: 8173069. DOI: 10.3389/fvets.2021.644414.

Molecular Diagnosis of a Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Causing an Outbreak of Pneumonia.

Chu D, Pan Y, Cheng S, Hui K, Krishnan P, Liu Y Clin Chem. 2020; 66(4):549-555.

PMID: 32031583 PMC: 7108203. DOI: 10.1093/clinchem/hvaa029.

Prediction of Intrinsic Disorder in MERS-CoV/HCoV-EMC Supports a High Oral-Fecal Transmission.

Goh G, Dunker A, Uversky V PLoS Curr. 2013; 5.

PMID: 24270586 PMC: 3828228. DOI: 10.1371/currents.outbreaks.22254b58675cdebc256dbe3c5aa6498b.

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus spike protein delivered by modified vaccinia virus Ankara efficiently induces virus-neutralizing antibodies.

Song F, Fux R, Provacia L, Volz A, Eickmann M, Becker S J Virol. 2013; 87(21):11950-4.

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