Publishes on SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research, Animal Virus Infections Studies, Viral gastroenteritis research and epidemiology. 133 papers and 48.6k citations.
Abstract Since the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) 18 years ago, a large number of SARS-related coronaviruses (SARSr-CoVs) have been discovered in their natural reservoir host, bats 1–4 . Previous studies have shown that some bat SARSr-CoVs have the potential to infect humans 5–7 . Here we report the identification and characterization of a new coronavirus (2019-nCoV), which caused an epidemic of acute respiratory syndrome in humans in Wuhan, China. The epidemic, which started on 12 December 2019, had caused 2,794 laboratory-confirmed infections including 80 deaths by 26 January 2020. Full-length genome sequences were obtained from five patients at an early stage of the outbreak. The sequences are almost identical and share 79.6% sequence identity to SARS-CoV. Furthermore, we show that 2019-nCoV is 96% identical at the whole-genome level to a bat coronavirus. Pairwise protein sequence analysis of seven conserved non-structural proteins domains show that this virus belongs to the species of . In addition, 2019-nCoV virus isolated from the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of a critically ill patient could be neutralized by sera from several patients. Notably, we confirmed that 2019-nCoV uses the same cell entry receptor—angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2)—as SARS-CoV.
In December 2019, a novel pneumonia caused by a previously \nunknown pathogen emerged in Wuhan, a city of 11 million \npeople in central China. The initial cases were linked to \nexposures in a seafood market in Wuhan.1 As of January 27, \n2020, the Chinese authorities reported 2835 confirmed cases in \nmainland China, including 81 deaths. Additionally, 19 confirmed \ncases were identified in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and 39 \nimported cases were identified in Thailand, Japan, South Korea, \nUnited States, Vietnam, Singapore, Nepal, France, Australia \nand Canada. The pathogen was soon identified as a novel \ncoronavirus (2019-nCoV), which is closely related to sever acute \nrespiratory syndrome CoV (SARS-CoV).2 Currently, there is no \nspecific treatment against the new virus. Therefore, identifying \neffective antiviral agents to combat the disease is urgently \nneeded.
In December 2019, a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) caused an outbreak in Wuhan, China, and soon spread to other parts of the world. It was believed that 2019-nCoV was transmitted through respiratory tract and then induced pneumonia, thus molecular diagnosis based on oral swabs was used for confirmation of this disease. Likewise, patient will be released upon two times of negative detection from oral swabs. However, many coronaviruses can also be transmitted through oral-fecal route by infecting intestines. Whether 2019-nCoV infected patients also carry virus in other organs like intestine need to be tested. We conducted investigation on patients in a local hospital who were infected with this virus. We found the presence of 2019-nCoV in anal swabs and blood as well, and more anal swab positives than oral swab positives in a later stage of infection, suggesting shedding and thereby transmitted through oral-fecal route. We also showed serology test can improve detection positive rate thus should be used in future epidemiology. Our report provides a cautionary warning that 2019-nCoV may be shed through multiple routes.