The role of cross-reactive immunity to emerging coronaviruses

Abstract

C oronaviruses are a large family of ribonucleic acid (RNA) viruses that can cause diseases in both humans and animals, and have caused significant public health concerns, and some human coronaviruses, such as OC43, NL63, 229E, and HKU1, can cause mild to moderate flu-like symptoms. 1,2 However, over the past twenty years, the world has faced 3 major pandemics of serious and lethal human coronaviruses, namely Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) in 2003, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in 2012, and the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) which was found at the end of 2019 and has caused the ongoing outbreak of COVID-19 disease. [2][3][4] The appearances of these viruses have encouraged us to achieve a deeper understanding of their disease mechanisms, transmission modes, and host immune interactions, and particularly the role of cross-reactivity among them. Furthermore, despite their distinct nature, these coronaviruses share several similarities in their genomic structure, receptor usage, and clinical