Coronavirus Pandemic: Role of Bats And Zoonotic Transmission in Humans

Abstract

Background: In the past two decades, the human coronavirus (HCoV) outbreaks have gripped the international communities almost six times [HCoV-OC43 (2001); HCoV-NL63 (2004); SARS-CoV (2003); HCoV HKU1 (2005); MERS-CoV (2012); SARS-CoV-2 (2019)]. These emerging pathogens have been proven very challenging from medical perspectives, economical conditions, and psychological impact on human society. Introduction: SARS-CoV-2, a novel coronavirus, has evidenced a historic yet troublesome pandemic across the globe. In humans, its clinical manifestations may range from asymptomatic, severe pneumonia to mortality. Bats are the natural reservoirs of a variety of viruses belonging to family Coronaviridae. Most of the bats harboring coronaviruses mainly reside in Asian and African regions. Objective: The objective was to describe the various characteristic features of all coronaviruses, clinical manifestations and complications associated with SARS-CoV-2. The major goal was to highlight the involvement of strong immune system of bats in cross-species transmission of coronaviruses in intermediate hosts and finally zoonotic transmission in humans. Methodology: The systematic literature search was conducted for high quality research and review articles. We searched the databases for articles published between year 1972 to 2020 with search terms zoonosis, coronaviruses, zoonotic transmissions, clinical manifestations and immune system of bats. Conclusion: The domestic and non-domestic animals are coming in closer contact with humans. Some requisite measures should be taken to decrease the contact with livestock to prevent further threatening viral transmissions. Furthermore, the remarkable immune system of bats is required to inquire thoroughly to develop novel therapeutics to conquer over the evolving coronaviruses in future.