Spiking the MERS-coronavirus receptor

• 来源期刊: 细胞研究（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2013,（9）
• 页码范围: 1069-1070
• 页数: 2页
• 语种: 英文
• DOI: 10.1038/cr.2013.108

摘要

A novel coronavirus,the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus,recently emerged through zoonotic transmission,causing a severe lower respiratory tract infection in humans.In two recent papers,one published in CellResearch,the crystal structure of the viral receptor-binding domain in complex with the host CD26/dipeptidyl peptidase 4 receptor has now been characterized. In mid 2012,a novel coronavirus (CoV) was isolated form the sputum of a patient with acute pneumonia and renal failure [1].As of July 10th 2013,this virus,named Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)-CoV,has caused 80 laboratory-confirmed infections of which 44 were fatal [2].The limited data available suggest that the virus is introduced into the human population through multiple independent,zoonotic transmission events from a — so far unknown — animal source with subsequent limited human-to-human spread.However,scenarios in which a single zoonotic transmission event has led to sustained,largely asymptomatic and non-detected human-to-human transmission cannot be excluded yet.