# 7736
PLoS Pathogens’s Pearls are a series of open access, short educational articles centered on pathogens research geared primarily for graduate students and post-docs.
These provide an excellent, and not terribly difficult to digest, educational resource a variety of topics.
Yesterday PloS Pathogens published a new one on MERS-CoV, that addresses the following topics.
Emergence of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus
Christopher M. Coleman, Matthew B. Frieman
PLOS Pathogens: published 05 Sep 2013 | info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.1003595
- Introduction
- What Is the Name of This Novel Coronavirus?
- Where Did MERS-CoV Come From? Is There a Natural Reservoir?
- Does MERS-CoV Share Any Features with SARS-CoV beyond the Zoonotic Origin?
- What Is the Receptor for MERS-CoV and What Cells Does It Infect?
- What Is the Host Response to MERS-CoV?
- Is There a Small Animal Model of MERS-CoV for the Study of Pathogenesis?
- Are There Approved Treatments or Vaccinations for MERS?
- Conclusion and Questions
- References
Under conclusions and questions, the authors write:
Many unanswered questions remain on this newly identified virus:
- What is the environmental reservoir of MERS-CoV? Is it transmitted from bats to camels, goats, or cats? Is the virus linked to date palm harvesting? How did it spread to people from the environment?
- Are there associated comorbidities that predispose someone to contracting MERS? With the age of infected patients skewed toward older males, is there a genetic link to infection? Are the patients generally immunosuppressed?
- What is the seroprevalence of MERS-CoV in the general population? Has MERS-CoV been circulating for many years between animals and people and only now mutated enough to be able to cause disease in people? Or is this a new spillover event that has not been seen by humans until now?
- Why doesn't MERS-CoV grow in mouse cells or cause disease in mice? Is it because the viral spike protein doesn't bind mouse DPP4 at all, is it because there are other host factors necessary for entry and replication in mouse cells, or is it due to location and amounts of receptor expression?
- How do the MERS-CoV proteins contribute to disease? Are there any specific functions of the proteins that allow for enhanced pathogenesis?
- Since this virus is similar to bat coronaviruses identified in China, Africa, and Europe, why haven't other bat coronaviruses spilled over into people, causing serious disease (with the exception of SARS-CoV [7] and, potentially, hCoV-229E [23])? What is it about MERS-CoV and the conditions in the Middle East that have contributed to viral infection and the high mortality rate?
With the spread of MERS-CoV through the Middle East, one thing is certain at this point: The emergence of the novel SARS coronavirus in 2003 from a zoonotic source in China and its spread around the world is not an isolated incident of coronavirus spread. Continued spillover events will occur from animals to humans in the future. The sooner we understand these current microbial threats, the more people we can save from infection and possible death. If we can identify these microbes in our environment before they infect us, we can better protect ourselves against future infections.
Well worth reviewing.
