Abstract
The recent SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has refocused attention to the betacoronaviruses, only eight years after the emergence of another zoonotic betacoronavirus, the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). While the wild source of SARS-CoV-2 may be disputed, for MERS-CoV, dromedaries are considered as source of zoonotic human infections. Testing 100 immune-response genes in 121 dromedaries from United Arab Emirates (UAE) for potential association with present MERS-CoV infection, we identified candidate genes with important functions in the adaptive, MHC-class I (HLA-A-24-like) and II (HLA-DPB1-like), and innate immune response (PTPN4, MAGOHB), and in cilia coating the respiratory tract (DNAH7). Some of these genes previously have been associated with viral replication in SARS-CoV-1/-2 in humans, others have an important role in the movement of bronchial cilia. These results suggest similar host genetic pathways associated with these betacoronaviruses, although further work is required to better understand the MERS-CoV disease dynamics in both dromedaries and humans.
Highlights
Emerging zoonotic diseases pose a serious threat to animal populations, and to humans around the globe, as we experience with SARS-CoV-2 and the current COVID-19 pandemic [1]
Nasal swabs from dromedaries from the two other sites, as well as all serum samples tested negative by the MERS-CoV specific RT-qPCR (Table S1)
In this study we attend to this important zoonosis and target the immune response to MERS-CoV infection in a representative dromedary sample from the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Summary
Emerging zoonotic diseases pose a serious threat to animal populations, and to humans around the globe, as we experience with SARS-CoV-2 and the current COVID-19 pandemic [1]. A recent example of an emerging zoonotic pathogen in the family Coronaviridae is the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). It was first isolated in June 2012 from the sputum of a 60-year-old man from Saudi Arabia with acute pneumonia [2]. Similar to other emerging human coronaviruses, MERS-CoV is thought to have originated from bats; dromedaries (Camelus dromedarius) have been identified as reservoir hosts and the primary source of human infections [4,5,6,7]. While the infection takes a mild course in dromedaries, ranging from asymptomatic to minor naso-ocular discharge [5,8,9], humans often suffer from a severe course of disease with a fatality rate of up to 35% [2,10]
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