Abstract
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infects humans and dromedary camels and is responsible for an ongoing outbreak of severe respiratory illness in humans in the Middle East. Although some mutations found in camel-derived MERS-CoV strains have been characterized, most natural variation found across MERS-CoV isolates remains unstudied. We report on the environmental stability, replication kinetics, and pathogenicity of several diverse isolates of MERS-CoV, as well as isolates of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, to serve as a basis of comparison with other stability studies. Although most MERS-CoV isolates had similar stability and pathogenicity in our experiments, the camel-derived isolate C/KSA/13 had reduced surface stability, and another camel isolate, C/BF/15, had reduced pathogenicity in a small animal model. These results suggest that although betacoronaviruses might have similar environmental stability profiles, individual variation can influence this phenotype, underscoring the need for continual global viral surveillance.
Highlights
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERSCoV) infects humans and dromedary camels and is responsible for an ongoing outbreak of severe respiratory illness in humans in the Middle East
We focused on environmental stability in aerosols as well as surface stability on common materials found in hospitals, replication kinetics in immortalized human cell lines and primary human airway epithelial cultures, and pathogenicity in a transgenic mouse model our laboratory developed to test vaccine efficacy [20]
Stability of MERS-CoV Strains in Aerosols or as Fomites Compared with SARS-CoV-2 We selected 8 MERS-CoV strains and 1 SARS-CoV-2 strain (SARS-CoV-2/WA1-2020) to be used in this study (Table; Figure 1)
Summary
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERSCoV) infects humans and dromedary camels and is responsible for an ongoing outbreak of severe respiratory illness in humans in the Middle East. Most MERS-CoV isolates had similar stability and pathogenicity in our experiments, the camel-derived isolate C/KSA/13 had reduced surface stability, and another camel isolate, C/ BF/15, had reduced pathogenicity in a small animal model These results suggest that betacoronaviruses might have similar environmental stability profiles, individual variation can influence this phenotype, underscoring the need for continual global viral surveillance. The 1% nucleotide sequence variation reported between various MERS-CoV isolates collected in the Middle East and North Africa is equivalent to 300 nt changes in the 30-kB viral genome [18]. Stability and Pathogenicity of MERS-CoV Strains pathology in an animal model [18] These findings underscore the need for characterizing how MERSCoV genetic variation alters viral replication, pathogenicity, and stability
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