A pneumonia outbreak associated with a new coronavirus of probable bat origin¶
Why this mattered¶
TBD
Abstract¶
Abstract Since the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) 18 years ago, a large number of SARS-related coronaviruses (SARSr-CoVs) have been discovered in their natural reservoir host, bats 1–4 . Previous studies have shown that some bat SARSr-CoVs have the potential to infect humans 5–7 . Here we report the identification and characterization of a new coronavirus (2019-nCoV), which caused an epidemic of acute respiratory syndrome in humans in Wuhan, China. The epidemic, which started on 12 December 2019, had caused 2,794 laboratory-confirmed infections including 80 deaths by 26 January 2020. Full-length genome sequences were obtained from five patients at an early stage of the outbreak. The sequences are almost identical and share 79.6% sequence identity to SARS-CoV. Furthermore, we show that 2019-nCoV is 96% identical at the whole-genome level to a bat coronavirus. Pairwise protein sequence analysis of seven conserved non-structural proteins domains show that this virus belongs to the species of . In addition, 2019-nCoV virus isolated from the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of a critically ill patient could be neutralized by sera from several patients. Notably, we confirmed that 2019-nCoV uses the same cell entry receptor—angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2)—as SARS-CoV.
Related¶
- cite → Isolation of a Novel Coronavirus from a Man with Pneumonia in Saudi Arabia — The 2020 SARS-CoV-2 outbreak paper compares the new coronavirus with MERS-CoV, first isolated from a Saudi pneumonia patient in 2012.
- cite ← SARS-CoV-2 Cell Entry Depends on ACE2 and TMPRSS2 and Is Blocked by a Clinically Proven Protease Inhibitor — The SARS-CoV-2 entry paper builds on the identification of the new bat-related coronavirus causing the pneumonia outbreak.
- cite ← Structure, Function, and Antigenicity of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Glycoprotein — The spike glycoprotein paper relies on the bat-origin coronavirus report for SARS-CoV-2 genome identity and zoonotic context.
- cite ← Cryo-EM structure of the 2019-nCoV spike in the prefusion conformation — The spike-structure paper cites the bat-origin pneumonia outbreak study to frame SARS-CoV-2 emergence and related coronavirus ancestry.
- cite ← A new coronavirus associated with human respiratory disease in China — Both papers identify SARS-CoV-2 as the causative agent of the Wuhan pneumonia outbreak and link it phylogenetically to bat coronaviruses.
- enables ← Isolation of a Novel Coronavirus from a Man with Pneumonia in Saudi Arabia — The 2012 MERS coronavirus isolation provided precedent for identifying a novel zoonotic coronavirus associated with severe pneumonia in humans.