Zoonotic origins of human coronaviruses

Abstract

Mutation and adaptation have driven the co-evolution of coronaviruses (CoVs) and their hosts, including human beings, for thousands of years. Before 2003, two human CoVs (HCoVs) were known to cause mild illness, such as common cold. The outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) have flipped the coin to reveal how devastating and lifethreatening an HCoV infection could be. The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in central China at the end of 2019 has thrusted CoVs into the spotlight again and surprised us with its high transmissibility but reduced pathogenicity compared to its sister SARS-CoV. HCoV infection is a zoonosis and understanding the zoonotic origins of HCoVs would serve us well. Most HCoVs originated from bats where they are non-pathogenic. The intermediate reservoir hosts of some HCoVs are also known. Identifying the animal hosts has direct implications in the prevention of human diseases. Investigating CoV-host interactions in animals might also derive important insight on CoV pathogenesis in humans. In this review, we present an overview of the existing knowledge about the seven HCoVs, with a focus on the history of their discovery as well as their zoonotic origins and interspecies transmission. Importantly, we compare and contrast the different HCoVs from a perspective of virus evolution and genome recombination. The current CoV disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic is discussed in this context. In addition, the requirements for successful host switches and the implications of virus evolution on disease severity are also highlighted.

Initial impacts of global risk mitigation measures taken during the combatting of the COVID-19 pandemic

“…As for SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, the primary reservoir of the COVID-19 is probably the bat, based on sequence similarity with bat coronaviruses. Presumably, the intermediate animal hosts of 2019-nCoV should be among the wildlife species sold at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market (Ye et al, 2020). Despite public health risk mitigation measures and regulation efforts by many countries, regions and sectors, the current COVID-19 outbreak reminds the world about our vulnerability to natural and man-made chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) hazards and on the importance of mitigation actions 1 .…”

Ebola, Zika, Corona…What Is Next for Our World?

“…The epidemics that we have experienced in this century are not as new as many believe. Instead, the viruses that have caused these epidemics have been around for quite some time, continue to evolve, and in some cases, have worsened [1][2][3][4]. For example, Ebola viral infections first emerged in the 1970s, even though the current epidemics in Africa seem to be more troublesome.…”

Immuno-informatics Characterization SARS-CoV-2 Spike Glycoprotein for Prioritization of Epitope based Multivalent Peptide Vaccine

“…It is positive-sense RNA, enveloped and non-segmented virus and named as SARS-CoV-2 as it share 82% sequence identity with SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) [3,4]. SARS-CoV-2 caused coronavirus disease-19 and evidence suggest a zoonotic origin of this disease [5]. Though the zoonotic transmission is not completely understood but facts provide the ground that it proliferates from the seafood market Huanan in Wuhan and human-to-human transmission resultant into the exponential increase in number of cases [6,7].…”