faulker024

In an ahead-of-print article in Virology Journal [1], Cui and associates report the results of a study of the molecular evolution of DPP4, a cell-surface receptor, across the mammalian phylogeny.   Their analyses showed that the dN/dS value on the bat lineage (0.96) was four times greater than the mammalian average leading to the conclusion that Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) ultimately has a bat-origin. From the article – Our analysis therefore suggests that the evolutionary lineage leading to current MERS-CoV co-evolved with bat hosts for an extended time period, eventually jumping species boundaries to infect humans and perhaps through an intermediate host. As such, the emergence of MERS-CoV may parallel that of the related SARS-CoV. Although one bat species, Taphozous erforatus , in Saudi Arabia has been found to harbour a small RdRp (RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase) fragment of MERS-CoV, a larger viral sampling of bats and other animals with close ex...

The first human infections of a novel coronavirus were identified in late of 2012. The coronavirus was later named hCoV-EMC based on genetic analysis at the Erasmus Medical Center [1].   More recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) has adopted the label MERS-CoV for hCoV-EMC [2]. As noted in a previous post,   at least 50+ MERS cases have been reported from eight countries; France, Jordan, Italy, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. The nature of the transmission is uncertain, but some of these infections are occurring in hospital settings; several health care workers have been infected.   Four of these clusters, one from France, one from Italy, one from Tunisia, and one from the United Kingdom, occurred outside of the Middle East region. The index cases in all four of these clusters had previously visited countries within the Arabian Peninsula. The index cases of other clusters, as well as other individual isolated ...