Snakes now pinpointed as likely source of China’s coronavirus
But researchers can't explain how virus adapt to both cold-blooded and warm-blooded hosts.
Mothership |
January 23, 10:40 am
This article is republished from The Conversation. Read the original article.
It is by Haitao Guo, Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Pittsburgh; Guangxiang “George” Luo, Professor of Microbiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Shou-Jiang Gao, Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Pittsburgh.
Snakes may be the original source of the newly discovered coronavirus that has triggered an outbreak of a deadly infectious respiratory illness in China this winter.
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Specifically, the Chinese krait and the Chinese cobra are potentially responsible.
Using samples of the virus isolated from patients, scientists in China have determined the genetic code of the virus and used microscopes to photograph it.
The pathogen responsible for this pandemic is a new coronavirus.
It’s in the same family of viruses as the well-known severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), which have killed hundreds of people in the past 17 years.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has named the new coronavirus 2019-nCoV.
What is a coronavirus?
The name of coronavirus comes from its shape, which resembles a crown or solar corona when imaged using an electron microscope.
Coronavirus is transmitted through the air and primarily infects the upper respiratory and gastrointestinal tract of mammals and birds.
Though most of the members of the coronavirus family only cause mild flu-like symptoms during infection, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV can infect both upper and lower airways and cause severe respiratory illness and other complications in humans.
This new 2019-nCoV causes similar symptoms to SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV.
People infected with these coronaviruses suffer a severe inflammatory response.
Unfortunately, there is no approved vaccine or antiviral treatment available for coronavirus infection.
A better understanding of the life cycle of 2019-nCoV, including the source of the virus, how it is transmitted and how it replicates are needed to both prevent and treat the disease.