From SARS to MERS, Thrusting Coronaviruses into the Spotlight

Abstract

Coronaviruses (CoVs) have formerly been regarded as relatively harmless respiratory pathogens to humans. However, two outbreaks of severe respiratory tract infection, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), as a result of zoonotic CoVs crossing the species barrier, caused high pathogenicity and mortality rates in human populations. This brought CoVs global attention and highlighted the importance of controlling infectious pathogens at international borders. In this review, we focus on our current understanding of the epidemiology, pathogenesis, prevention, and treatment of SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, as well as provides details on the pivotal structure and function of the spike proteins (S proteins) on the surface of each of these viruses. For building up more suitable animal models, we compare the current animal models recapitulating pathogenesis and summarize the potential role of host receptors contributing to diverse host affinity in various species. We outline the research still needed to fully elucidate the pathogenic mechanism of these viruses, to construct reproducible animal models, and ultimately develop countermeasures to conquer not only SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, but also these emerging coronaviral diseases.

Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of 99 cases of 2019 novel coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan, China: a descriptive study

“…17 The mortality of SARSCoV has been reported as more than 10% and MERSCoV at more than 35%. 5,18 At data cutoff for this study, mortality of the 99 included patients infected by 2019nCoV was 11%, resembling that in a previous study. 3 However, additional deaths might occur in those still hospitalised.…”

“…13 patients used noninvasive ventilator mechanical ventilation for 4-22 days (median 9 days [IQR 7-19]). Four patients used an invasive ventilator to assist ventilation for 3-20 days (median 17 [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]). The ventilator adopted PSIMV mode, the inhaled oxygen concentration was 35-100%, and the positive end expiratory pressure was 6-12 cm H 2 O.…”

The deadly coronaviruses: The 2003 SARS pandemic and the 2020 novel coronavirus epidemic in China

“…There are accessory genes interspersed within the structural genes at the 3′ end of genome [12], some of which have been shown to play an important roles in viral pathogenesis [13]. The S protein is responsible for receptor-binding and subsequent viral entry into host cells, the M and E proteins play important roles in viral assembly, and the N protein is necessary for RNA synthesis [12,14].…”

“…Virus strains have been isolated from patients' samples and provide the basis for research and development of a vaccine for the novel coronavirus. Although vaccines have been developed for SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, these are not commercially available [12,14,141]. Since the emergence of SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, basic research on coronaviruses and advances in vaccine preparation technology can significantly shorten the development time of new coronavirus vaccines.…”

The psychological impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on college students in China

“…Previous studies have indicated that the risk factors associated with emotional and anxiety disorders in adults include the death of parents in childhood, not living with parents, and parents' psychological problems and mental illnesses (Woodgate et al,2020;Gentili et al, 2020), which are consistent with the results of this study. Relatives or acquaintances being infected with COVID-19 was an independent risk factor in college students' anxiety about the epidemic, which might be related to the high contagiousness of the new coronavirus pneumonia (World Health Organization, 2020;Song et al, 2019).…”