Abstract
Recently, a few animals have been frequently reported to have been diagnosed with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Whether they are SARS-CoV-2 intermediate hosts is worthy of great attention. The interaction of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and its acceptor protein ACE2 is an important issue in determining viral host range and cross-species infection, while the binding capacity of Spike protein to ACE2 of different species is unknown. Here, we used the atomic structure model of SARS-CoV-2 and human ACE2 to assess the receptor utilization capacity of ACE2s from 10 kinds of animals. Results show that chimpanzees, domestic cats and cattles are more susceptible to infection by SARS-CoV-2. Cats in particular, such as pet cats and stray cats, interact very closely with humans, implying the necessity to carefully evaluate the risk of cats during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, based on ACE2(cats)-SARS-CoV-2-RBD model, through high-throughput screening methods using a pool of 30,000 small molecules, eight compounds were selected for binding free energy calculations. All the eight compounds can effectively interfere with the binding of ACE2 and Spike protein, especially Nelfinavir, providing drug candidates for the treatment and prevention of SARS-CoV-2, suggesting further assessment of the anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity of these compounds in cell culture. Although we only reported the results of the simulation, and more laboratory and epidemiological investigation are required. Like cats are a risk factor, we can further detect SARS-CoV-2 according to the susceptibility of different animals, find the potential host of infection, and completely cut off the living space of the virus. Especially, cats could be a choice of animal model for screening antiviral drugs or vaccine candidates against SARS-CoV-2.
Highlights
By June 14, 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak in China would have been well under control
The utilization of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) by SARS-CoV-2 can rapidly screen and narrow the range of intermediate hosts of SARS-CoV-2. It is not clear which mammals are involved in the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and which animals are infected by SARS-CoV-2
In order to analyze the possibility of SARS-CoV-2 infection on mammals that humans may come into contact with in daily life, we collected the amino acid sequence of ACE2 of pet cats, dogs, livestock cattle, horses, sheep and pigs, as well as laboratory animals Rhesus monkey, chimpanzees, mice and rabbits in Genbank
Summary
By June 14, 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak in China would have been well under control. SARS-CoV-2 was suddenly detected in Xinfadi seafood market in Beijing, which makes it more urgent to assess the susceptibility of animals in close contact with humans. The homology of SARS-CoV-2 and bat SARS-like coronavirus (bat-sl-covzc45) is higher than 85% (Boni et al, 2020; Lu et al, 2020), on the other hand, the virus is unlikely to spread directly from bats to humans due to the lack of direct contact, meaning there is an unknown intermediate host. The utilization of ACE2 by SARS-CoV-2 can rapidly screen and narrow the range of intermediate hosts of SARS-CoV-2 It is not clear which mammals are involved in the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and which animals are infected by SARS-CoV-2. Our results may help to screen out SARSCoV-2 intermediate hosts and to figure out the transmission model of SARS-CoV-2 and to control the COVID19 disease
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