Sci Rep . Establishment of well-differentiated camelid airway cultures to study Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus

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Sci Rep


. 2022 Jun 20;12(1):10340.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-13777-y.
Establishment of well-differentiated camelid airway cultures to study Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus


Mitra Gultom ^{# 1 2 3 4} , Annika Kratzel ^{# 1 2 3} , Jasmine Portmann ^{1 2} , Hanspeter Stalder ^{1 2} , Astrid Chanfon Bätzner ⁵ , Hans Gantenbein ^{2 6} , Corinne Gurtner ^{2 6} , Nadine Ebert ^{1 2} , Hans Henrik Gad ⁷ , Rune Hartmann ⁷ , Horst Posthaus ^{2 6} , Patrik Zanolari ⁸ , Stephanie Pfaender ^{1 2 9} , Volker Thiel ^{10 11 12} , Ronald Dijkman ^{13 14 15 16}



Affiliations

• PMID: 35725865
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-13777-y

Abstract

In 2012, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) emerged in Saudi Arabia and was mostly associated with severe respiratory illness in humans. Dromedary camels are the zoonotic reservoir for MERS-CoV. To investigate the biology of MERS-CoV in camelids, we developed a well-differentiated airway epithelial cell (AEC) culture model for Llama glama and Camelus bactrianus. Histological characterization revealed progressive epithelial cellular differentiation with well-resemblance to autologous ex vivo tissues. We demonstrate that MERS-CoV displays a divergent cell tropism and replication kinetics profile in both AEC models. Furthermore, we observed that in the camelid AEC models MERS-CoV replication can be inhibited by both type I and III interferons (IFNs). In conclusion, we successfully established camelid AEC cultures that recapitulate the in vivo airway epithelium and reflect MERS-CoV infection in vivo. In combination with human AEC cultures, this system allows detailed characterization of the molecular basis of MERS-CoV cross-species transmission in respiratory epithelium.