Epidemiological Study of Betacoronaviruses in Captive Malayan Pangolins.

Linmiao Li,Yan Hua,Jinping Chen,Jing Chen,Jiabin Zhou,Fanghui Hou,Fuyu An,Ping Liu,Xiaohu Wang,Wenzhong Huang

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2021.657439

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has significantly affected international public health safety. It has been reported that the pathogen severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes COVID-19, could originate from bats and utilize the Malayan pangolin (Manis javanica) as an intermediate host. To gain further insights into the coronaviruses carried by pangolins, we investigated the occurrence of Betacoronavirus (β-CoV) infections in captive Malayan pangolins in the Guangdong province of China. We detected three β-CoV-positive M. javanica individuals with a positive rate of 6.98% and also detected β-CoV in two dead pangolins sampled in August 2019. The CoV carried by pangolins is a new β-CoV, which is genetically related to SARS-CoV-2. Furthermore, the expression of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) was detected in eight organs of pangolins, with the highest ACE2 mRNA levels in the kidney, suggesting that these organs could be at a risk of β-CoV infection. These results enable us to better understand the status of β-CoV carried by Malayan pangolins, while providing a theoretical basis for better pangolin protection and viral control.

Highlights

The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2; provisionally named 2019 novel coronavirus or 2019-nCoV) has become a global challenge
Among the seven dead pangolins, three Malayan pangolin individuals were dissected in a sterile environment; samples, including the heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney, stomach, lymph node, and pancreas, were used for quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) to determine the expression of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) mRNA
Traceability studies of SARS-CoV-2 revealed that pangolins might be an intermediate host for SARS-CoV-2 (Lam et al, 2020; Xiao et al, 2020); there is no strong evidence currently available to support this notion

Summary

Introduction

The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2; provisionally named 2019 novel coronavirus or 2019-nCoV) has become a global challenge. Researchers believe that pangolins have the potential to act as an intermediate host of SARS-CoV-2, possibly from the recombination of a pangolin-CoV virus with a Bat-CoV-RaTG13 virus (Xiao et al, 2020). Other researchers believe that pangolins may be a natural reservoir of SARS-CoV-2-like CoVs (Liu et al, 2020; Zhang et al, 2020); there has been no evidence of coronavirus or other potentially zoonotic viral emergence from the Malayan pangolins (Manis javanica) entering the wildlife trade through Malaysia (Lee et al, 2020). Pangolins are currently receiving extensive attention and debate over their role as potential hosts of SARS-CoV-2

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