Composition and divergence of coronavirus spike proteins and host ACE2 receptors predict potential intermediate hosts of SARS‐CoV‐2

Abstract

From the beginning of 2002 and 2012, severe respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) crossed the species barriers to infect humans, causing thousands of infections and hundreds of deaths, respectively. Currently, a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), which has become the cause of the outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), was discovered. Until 18 February 2020, there were 72 533 confirmed COVID-19 cases (including 10 644 severe cases) and 1872 deaths in China. SARS-CoV-2 is spreading among the public and causing substantial burden due to its human-to-human transmission. However, the intermediate host of SARS-CoV-2 is still unclear. Finding the possible intermediate host of SARS-CoV-2is imperative to prevent further spread of the epidemic. In this study, we used systematic comparison and analysis to predict the interaction between the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of coronavirus spike protein and the host receptor, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). The interaction between the key amino acids of S protein RBD and ACE2 indicated that, other than pangolins and snakes, as previously suggested, turtles (Chrysemys picta bellii, Chelonia mydas, and Pelodiscus sinensis) may act as the potential intermediate hosts transmitting SARS-CoV-2 to humans.

Genetic evolution analysis of 2019 novel coronavirus and coronavirus from other species

“…: MN996532), with 96.2% nucleotide homology in the whole genome Zhou et al, 2020). Other groups suggest that pangolin, mink, snake, turtle may be potential intermediate hosts for the virus (Association, 2020;Guo et al, 2020;Ji et al, 2020;Lam et al, 2020;Li et al, 2020;Liu et al, 2020a;Liu et al, 2020b;Xiao et al, 2020;Zhang et al, 2020a;Zhang et al, 2020b), which still need more evidence to be confirmed.…”

The Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Threat for Patients With Cardiovascular Disease and Cancer

“…The mechanism of COVID-19-associated cardiovascular injury is not well understood; however, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2) has been implicated (6,10). ACE-2 is widely expressed in the lungs and cardiovascular system and plays a vital role in the immune system.…”

First Clinical Study Using HCV Protease Inhibitor Danoprevir to Treat Naïve and Experienced COVID-19 Patients

“…During SARS-COV-2's life cycle, chymotrypsin-like protease (3CL pro) can cleave viral polyprotein to form the RNA replicase-transcriptase complex, which is essential for both viral transcription and replication [8][9]. The proteases of HCV and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) showed similar function as SARS-COV-2, so protease inhibitors are hypothesised to have the therapeutic potential against COVID-19.…”