Surface-aerosol Stability and Pathogenicity of Diverse MERS-CoV Strains from 2012 - 2018

Overview

Journal bioRxiv

Date 2021 Feb 17

PMID 33594367

Authors

Neeltje van Doremalen

Michael Letko

Robert J Fischer

Trenton Bushmaker

Claude Kwe Yinda

Jonathan Schulz

Stephanie N Seifert

Nam Joong Kim

Maged G Hemida

Ghazi Kayali

Wan Beom Park

Ranawaka Apm Perera

Azaibi Tamin

Natalie J Thornburg

Suxiang Tong

Krista Queen

Maria D Van Kerkhove

Young Ki Choi

Myoung-Don Oh

Abdullah M Assiri

Malik Peiris

Susan I Gerber

Vincent J Munster

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a coronavirus that infects both humans and dromedary camels and is responsible for an ongoing outbreak of severe respiratory illness in humans in the Middle East. While some mutations found in camel-derived MERS-CoV strains have been characterized, the majority of natural variation found across MERS-CoV isolates remains unstudied. Here we report on the environmental stability, replication kinetics and pathogenicity of several diverse isolates of MERS-CoV as well as SARS-CoV-2 to serve as a basis of comparison with other stability studies. While most of the MERS-CoV isolates exhibited similar stability and pathogenicity in our experiments, the camel derived isolate, C/KSA/13, exhibited reduced surface stability while another camel isolate, C/BF/15, had reduced pathogenicity in a small animal model. These results suggest that while betacoronaviruses may have similar environmental stability profiles, individual variation can influence this phenotype, underscoring the importance of continual, global viral surveillance.

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