Giuseppe
Emeritus
[Source: mBio, full page: (LINK). Abstract, edited.]
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Human Coronavirus EMC Is Not the Same as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus
Stanley Perlman and Jincun Zhao
Author Affiliations: Department of Microbiology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA
Address correspondence to Stanley Perlman, stanley-perlman@uiowa.edu.
ABSTRACT
A newly identified betacoronavirus, human coronavirus EMC (HCoV-EMC), has been isolated from several patients with respiratory and renal disease in the Middle East. While only a few infected patients have been identified, the mortality of the infection is greater than 50%. Like its better-known cousin severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), HCoV-EMC appears to have originated from bats. In a recent article in mBio, M?ller et al. described several important differences between the two viruses [M. A. M?ller et al., mBio 3(6):e00515-12, 2012, doi:10.1128/mBio.00515-12]. Unlike SARS-CoV, HCoV-EMC can directly infect bat cells. As important, HCoV-EMC does not enter cells using the SARS-CoV receptor, human angiotensin-converting receptor-2 (hACE2). These results provide a strong incentive for identifying the host cell receptor used by HCoV-EMC. Identification of the receptor will provide insight into the pathogenesis of pulmonary and renal disease and may also suggest novel therapeutic interventions.
The views expressed in this Commentary do not necessarily reflect the views of the journal or of ASM.
Footnotes
Citation Perlman S, Zhao J. 2013. Human coronavirus EMC is not the same as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus. mBio 4(1):e00002-13. doi:10.1128/mBio.00002-13.
Received 3 January 2013 - Accepted 3 January 2013 - Published 15 January 2013
Copyright ? 2013 Perlman and Zhao
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license, which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
-Stanley Perlman and Jincun Zhao
Author Affiliations: Department of Microbiology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA
Address correspondence to Stanley Perlman, stanley-perlman@uiowa.edu.
ABSTRACT
A newly identified betacoronavirus, human coronavirus EMC (HCoV-EMC), has been isolated from several patients with respiratory and renal disease in the Middle East. While only a few infected patients have been identified, the mortality of the infection is greater than 50%. Like its better-known cousin severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), HCoV-EMC appears to have originated from bats. In a recent article in mBio, M?ller et al. described several important differences between the two viruses [M. A. M?ller et al., mBio 3(6):e00515-12, 2012, doi:10.1128/mBio.00515-12]. Unlike SARS-CoV, HCoV-EMC can directly infect bat cells. As important, HCoV-EMC does not enter cells using the SARS-CoV receptor, human angiotensin-converting receptor-2 (hACE2). These results provide a strong incentive for identifying the host cell receptor used by HCoV-EMC. Identification of the receptor will provide insight into the pathogenesis of pulmonary and renal disease and may also suggest novel therapeutic interventions.
The views expressed in this Commentary do not necessarily reflect the views of the journal or of ASM.
Footnotes
Citation Perlman S, Zhao J. 2013. Human coronavirus EMC is not the same as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus. mBio 4(1):e00002-13. doi:10.1128/mBio.00002-13.
Received 3 January 2013 - Accepted 3 January 2013 - Published 15 January 2013
Copyright ? 2013 Perlman and Zhao
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license, which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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