Abstract
The origin and intermediate host for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is yet to be determined. Coronaviruses found to be closely related to SARS-CoV-2 include RaTG13 derived from bat and two clusters (PCoV-GD and PCoV-GX) of coronaviruses identified in pangolin. Here, we studied the infectivity and antigenicity patterns of SARS-CoV-2 and the three related coronaviruses. Compared with the other three viruses, RaTG13 showed almost no infectivity to a variety of cell lines. The two pangolin coronaviruses and SARS-CoV-2 showed similar infectious activity. However, in SARS-CoV-2-susceptible cell lines, the pangolin coronaviruses presented even higher infectivity. The striking difference between the SARS-CoV-2 and pangolin coronaviruses is that the latter can infect porcine cells, which could be partially attributed to an amino acid difference at the position of 498 of the spike protein. The infection by SARS-CoV-2 was mainly mediated by Furin and TMPRSS2, while PCoV-GD and PCoV-GX mainly depend on Cathepsin L. Extensive cross-neutralization was found between SARS-CoV-2 and PCoV-GD. However, almost no cross-neutralization was observed between PCoV-GX and SARS-CoV-2 or PCoV-GD. More attention should be paid to pangolin coronaviruses and to investigate the possibility of these coronaviruses spreading across species to become zoonoses among pigs or humans.
Highlights
Seven coronaviruses have been found to infect humans, including the four so-called common cold viruses HCoVNL63, HCoV-229E, HCoV-OC43, and HKU1, as well as the three potentially lethal SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2
Pseudotyped virus was defined as no-infectivity when its relative light unit (RLU) values decreased over 100-fold compared with the that of SARS-CoV-2 in 293T cells overexpressing human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (293T-human ACE2 (hACE2) cells)[21]
The coronavirus PCoV-GD (91.2% sequence similarity to SARS-CoV-2), isolated from pangolins imported from Guangdong[16], is more closely related to SARS-CoV-2, while the coronavirus PCoV-GX (85.4% sequence similarity), isolated from pangolins imported from Guangxi[17], is more distant
Summary
Seven coronaviruses have been found to infect humans, including the four so-called common cold viruses HCoVNL63, HCoV-229E, HCoV-OC43, and HKU1, as well as the three potentially lethal SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2. 229E are believed to have originated from bats, while. The intermediate hosts of HCoV-229E and HCoV-OC43 are camelids and cows, while those of SARS-CoV and MERS-. SARS-CoV-2 is currently thought to have originated in bats, but its intermediate host is yet to be defined[4,5]. Animal experiments showed that SARS-CoV-2 could infect monkeys[6], hamsters[7], ferrets[8], cats[8], tree shrews[9], transgenic mice[10], fruit bats[11], dogs[12] and minks[13], but not pigs[8] or poultry[11].
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