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Editor, Senior Moderator
Lack of small animal model hinders MERS coronavirus research
Elizabeth Devitt
Nature Medicine
19,
952
(2013)
doi:10.1038/nm0813-952
Published online
06 August 2013
When reports of a new coronavirus trickled out of Saudi Arabia last year, scientists leveraged a decade of experience studying SARS (severe acquired respiratory syndrome) to quickly find ways to stop infections from the deadly pathogen. But research efforts are stalled because of one key difference between the two coronaviruses: unlike SARS, which readily infects a menagerie of animals, the virus responsible for so-called 'Middle East respiratory syndrome', or MERS, doesn't seem to cause disease in small lab animals.
Fortunately for MERS researchers laboring to develop an animal model before the viral outbreak gets out of hand, time seems to be on their side. The MERS coronavirus doesn't seem to be spreading between people fast enough to warrant fears of a pandemic, according to an analysis published 5 July in The Lancet1.
..
http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v19/n8/full/nm0813-952.html
Elizabeth Devitt
Nature Medicine
19,
952
(2013)
doi:10.1038/nm0813-952
Published online
06 August 2013
When reports of a new coronavirus trickled out of Saudi Arabia last year, scientists leveraged a decade of experience studying SARS (severe acquired respiratory syndrome) to quickly find ways to stop infections from the deadly pathogen. But research efforts are stalled because of one key difference between the two coronaviruses: unlike SARS, which readily infects a menagerie of animals, the virus responsible for so-called 'Middle East respiratory syndrome', or MERS, doesn't seem to cause disease in small lab animals.
Fortunately for MERS researchers laboring to develop an animal model before the viral outbreak gets out of hand, time seems to be on their side. The MERS coronavirus doesn't seem to be spreading between people fast enough to warrant fears of a pandemic, according to an analysis published 5 July in The Lancet1.
..
http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v19/n8/full/nm0813-952.html