SARS-CoV对幼年和成年布氏田鼠的感染研究

采用鼻腔喷雾法(CCID50=105.7)研究了SARS冠状病毒(SARS-CoV)对成年和幼年布氏田鼠的感染效果.成年动物攻毒后出现死亡,表现为口鼻有出血,肠道出血;肺组织呈出血性间质性肺炎改变,肝、脾、肾、胰腺组织均呈淤血性改变;存活动物肺组织呈间质性肺炎,局灶出血及肺气肿改变,其他脏器未见明显病变.幼年动物攻毒后未见死亡但行动较为迟缓,主要脏器未见明显异常;早期肺组织有局限性肺炎改变,且病毒分离为阳性;同居对照组的一只动物有肺组织局灶性肺炎.结果表明,SARS-CoV可以很强地感染布氏田鼠;成年布氏田鼠比幼年动物对SARS-CoV更敏感;布氏田鼠有望成为一种比较理想的小型SARS动物模型。     

SARS冠状病毒的刺突蛋白

严重急性呼吸系统综合征(severe acute respiratory syndrome,SARS)是由严重急性呼吸系统综合征冠状病毒(SARS corona-vims,SARS-CoV)引起的呼吸系统疾病。SARS-CoV的刺突蛋白(spike protein)具有S1和S2两个独特的功能结构域,研究发现两者都是进行疫苗和抗体研究的理想和有效的靶点。对非典疫苗的研究生产非常有价值,对预防和治疗SARS也有重大意义。     

SARS-CoV动物模型研究之中国现状

目的综合对比SARS-CoV感染的恒河猴、布氏田鼠及Lewis大鼠的病理学、免疫学以及病毒的复制与外排情况的变化,来探讨此三种动物在建立SARS模型上的特点。方法SARS病毒感染8只恒河猴、9只Lewis大鼠和20只布氏田鼠,在感染后不同时间安乐死动物,应用光镜对动物的各脏器进行病理观察研究;用病毒分离和RT-PCR方法检测病毒外排与复制的情况;用ELISA法检测动物产生特异性抗体情况。结果在SARS-CoV感染恒河猴、Lewis大鼠和布氏田鼠后,肺组织均出现一定的与人类SARS疾病相似的病理改变,在动物体内均可检测到活病毒或病毒核酸,并可检测到特异性IgG抗体的存在。在病死率上布氏田鼠最高;在病毒的复制与外排方面恒河猴的检出率最高,持续时间最长;在抗体产生情况上恒河猴与Lewis大鼠基本相似;在病理变化上恒河猴病变最重且最为复杂,与人类SARS疾病的病理变化最为接近。结论布氏田鼠,Lewis大鼠,特别是恒河猴动物模型可以用于SARS发病机制、疫苗和药物的研发,恒河猴动物模型是目前研究SARS疾病最理想的动物模型。     

Adaptive evolution of the spike gene of SARS coronavirus: changes in positively selected sites in different epidemic groups

Background  

It is believed that animal-to-human transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus (CoV) is the cause of the SARS outbreak worldwide. The spike (S) protein is one of the best characterized proteins of SARS-CoV, which plays a key role in SARS-CoV overcoming species barrier and accomplishing interspecies transmission from animals to humans, suggesting that it may be the major target of selective pressure. However, the process of adaptive evolution of S protein and the exact positively selected sites associated with this process remain unknown.     

Lack of peripheral memory B cell responses in recovered patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome: a six-year follow-up study

Six years have passed since the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Previous studies indicated that specific Abs to SARS-related coronavirus (SARS-CoV) waned over time in recovered SARS patients. It is critical to find out whether a potential anamnestic response, as seen with other viral infections, exists to protect a person from reinfection in case of another SARS outbreak. Recovered SARS patients were followed up to 6 y to estimate the longevity of specific Ab. The specific memory B cell and T cell responses to SARS-CoV Ags were measured by means of ELISPOT assay. Factors in relation to humoral and cellular immunity were investigated. Six years postinfection, specific IgG Ab to SARS-CoV became undetectable in 21 of the 23 former patients. No SARS-CoV Ag-specific memory B cell response was detected in either 23 former SARS patients or 22 close contacts of SARS patients. Memory T cell responses to a pool of SARS-CoV S peptides were identified in 14 of 23 (60.9%) recovered SARS patients, whereas there was no such specific response in either close contacts or healthy controls. Patients with more severe clinical manifestations seemed to present a higher level of Ag-specific memory T cell response. SARS-specific IgG Ab may eventually vanish and peripheral memory B cell responses are undetectable in recovered SARS patients. In contrast, specific T cell anamnestic responses can be maintained for at least 6 y. These findings have applications in preparation for the possible reemergence of SARS.     

Generation and characterization of DNA vaccines targeting the nucleocapsid protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a serious threat to public health and the economy on a global scale. The SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) has been identified as the etiological agent for SARS. Thus, vaccination against SARS-CoV may represent an effective approach to controlling SARS. DNA vaccines are an attractive approach for SARS vaccine development, as they offer many advantages over conventional vaccines, including stability, simplicity, and safety. Our investigators have previously shown that DNA vaccination with antigen linked to calreticulin (CRT) dramatically enhances major histocompatibility complex class I presentation of linked antigen to CD8(+) T cells. In this study, we have employed this CRT-based enhancement strategy to create effective DNA vaccines using SARS-CoV nucleocapsid (N) protein as a target antigen. Vaccination with naked CRT/N DNA generated the most potent N-specific humoral and T-cell-mediated immune responses in vaccinated C57BL/6 mice among all of the DNA constructs tested. Furthermore, mice vaccinated with CRT/N DNA were capable of significantly reducing the titer of challenging vaccinia virus expressing the N protein of the SARS virus. These results show that a DNA vaccine encoding CRT linked to a SARS-CoV antigen is capable of generating strong N-specific humoral and cellular immunity and may potentially be useful for control of infection with SARS-CoV.     

Pathology of guinea pigs experimentally infected with a novel reovirus and coronavirus isolated from SARS patients

Guinea pigs were inoculated with a reovirus (ReoV) and coronavirus (SARS-CoV) isolated from SARS patients to determine their potential role in the etiology of SARS. Animals infected with ReoV died between day 22 and day 30 postinoculation (PI) while 70% of the animals inoculated with ReoV and SARS-CoV died between day 4 to day 7 PI. The titer of neutralizing antibodies against ReoV and SARS-CoV ranged from 80 to 160 when the animals were inoculated with the two viruses, respectively, while the titer of the antibodies was just below 10 in coinfections. The animal inoculated with ReoV developed diffuse alveolar damage similar to the exudative and leakage inflammation found in SARS patients, and was characterized by diffuse hemorrhage, fibroid exudation, hyaline membrane formation, and type II pneumocytes hyperplasia in alveolar interstitia. The pulmonary epithelial necrosis, excoriation, and early fibrosis of pulmonary tissue were only observed in ReoV-SARS-CoV groups and in SARS-CoV/ReoV groups. Other typical pathological changes included hemorrhagic necrosis in lymph nodes and spleen and hydropic degeneration in the liver. On the contrary, guinea pigs infected with SARS-CoV only developed interstitial pneumonitis. Our experiment demonstrate that ReoV might be one of the primary causes of SARS, since simultaneous coinfection can duplicate the typical pathological changes similar to that of SARS patients. This guinea pig model may provide a useful animal model for SARS.     

SARS Research in China

SARS Research in China     

SARS冠状病毒S受体结合区蛋白片段在杆状病毒载体中的表达及其抗原性研究

目的:利用Bac-to-Bac1杆状病毒系统,在sf9昆虫细胞中表达严重急性呼吸综合征(SARS)冠状病毒(SARS-CoV)的S受体结合区蛋白片段,并对其免疫原性进行研究。方法:将S蛋白的受体结合区基因片段定向克隆至转座载体pFast-Bac1,转化大肠杆菌DH10Bac感受态细胞,用抗生素平板筛选重组杆粒。脂质体介导重组杆粒转染sf9昆虫细胞,待细胞形态明显改变后收获细胞和培养上清液。利用SARS病人恢复期抗血清做ELISA和Western印迹,分析重组蛋白的抗原性。结果:ELISA和Western印迹表明,在sf9昆虫细胞中表达的SARS-CoVS受体结合区重组蛋白可与SARS病人恢复期抗血清发生特异反应。结论:获得了在昆虫细胞内表达的SARS-CoVS受体结合区重组蛋白,并证明该蛋白有可能用于SARS感染的抗体检测,为SARS-CoV免疫机制及其疫苗的进一步研究奠定了基础。     

SARS病毒感染动物模型

SARS-CoV感染动物模型的建立可加深对SARS病原学的了解和发病机制的研究,加速实验室诊断技术的建立、抗病毒药物的筛选和疫苗的开发,同时也有助于给该病一个更精确的定义。可以说SARS动物模型的建立,不但是SARS研究的瓶颈问题,其应用更是贯穿SARS研究的整个过程。到目前为止,已经报道有4种非人灵长类动物(恒河猴、食蟹猴、绒猴、非洲绿猴)和6种啮齿类动物(大鼠、小鼠、豚鼠、田鼠、仓鼠、转基因鼠),以及雪貂、家猫等可以作为SARS动物模型用于实验研究,并已经开始利用动物模型进行疫苗和药物的安全性和有效性评价。本文就已报道的各类SARS动物模型进行综述,并根据动物模型和SARS患者的比对,提出动物模型建立的技术要点。     

Inhibition of SARS pseudovirus cell entry by lactoferrin binding to heparan sulfate proteoglycans

It has been reported that lactoferrin (LF) participates in the host immune response against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) invasion by enhancing NK cell activity and stimulating neutrophil aggregation and adhesion. We further investigated the role of LF in the entry of SARS pseudovirus into HEK293E/ACE2-Myc cells. Our results reveal that LF inhibits SARS pseudovirus infection in a dose-dependent manner. Further analysis suggested that LF was able to block the binding of spike protein to host cells at 4°C, indicating that LF exerted its inhibitory function at the viral attachment stage. However, LF did not disrupt the interaction of spike protein with angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), the functional receptor of SARS-CoV. Previous studies have shown that LF colocalizes with the widely distributed cell-surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs). Our experiments have also confirmed this conclusion. Treatment of the cells with heparinase or exogenous heparin prevented binding of spike protein to host cells and inhibited SARS pseudovirus infection, demonstrating that HSPGs provide the binding sites for SARS-CoV invasion at the early attachment phase. Taken together, our results suggest that, in addition to ACE2, HSPGs are essential cell-surface molecules involved in SARS-CoV cell entry. LF may play a protective role in host defense against SARS-CoV infection through binding to HSPGs and blocking the preliminary interaction between SARS-CoV and host cells. Our findings may provide further understanding of SARS-CoV pathogenesis and aid in treatment of this deadly disease.     

Interferon and cytokine responses to SARS-coronavirus infection

The sudden emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has boosted research on innate immune responses to coronaviruses. It is now well established that the causative agent, a newly identified coronavirus termed SARS-CoV, employs multiple passive and active mechanisms to avoid induction of the antiviral type I interferons in tissue cells. By contrast, chemokines such as IP-10 or IL-8 are strongly upregulated. The imbalance in the IFN response is thought to contribute to the establishment of viremia early in infection, whereas the production of chemokines by infected organs may be responsible for (i) massive immune cell infiltrations found in the lungs of SARS victims, and (ii) the dysregulation of adaptive immunity. Here, we will review the most recent findings on the interaction of SARS-CoV and related Coronaviridae members with the type I interferon and cytokine responses and discuss implications for pathogenesis and therapy.     

Co-infection of respiratory bacterium with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus induces an exacerbated pneumonia in mice

SARS-CoV grows in a variety of tissues that express its receptor, although the mechanism for high replication in the lungs and severe respiratory illness is not well understood. We recently showed that elastase enhances SARS-CoV infection in cultured cells, which suggests that SARS development may be due to elastase-mediated, enhanced SARS-CoV infection in the lungs. To explore this possibility, we examined whether co-infection of mice with SARS-CoV and Pp, a low-pathogenic bacterium which elicits elastase production in the lungs, induces exacerbation of pneumonia. Mice co-infected with SARS-CoV and Pp developed severe respiratory disease with extensive weight loss, resulting in a 33~90% mortality rate. Mice with exacerbated pneumonia showed enhanced virus infection in the lungs and histopathological lesions similar to those found in human SARS cases. Intranasal administration of LPS, another elastase inducer, showed an effect similar to that of Pp infection. Thus, this study shows that exacerbated pneumonia in mice results from co-infection with SARS-CoV and a respiratory bacterium that induces elastase production in the lungs, suggesting a possible role for elastase in the exacerbation of pneumonia.     

Evaluation of Affymetrix Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Resequencing GeneChips in Characterization of the Genomes of Two Strains of Coronavirus Infecting Humans

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was discovered during a recent global outbreak of atypical pneumonia. A number of immunologic and molecular studies of the clinical samples led to the conclusion that a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV) was associated with the outbreak. Later, a SARS resequencing GeneChip was developed by Affymetrix to characterize the complete genome of SARS-CoV on a single GeneChip. The present study was carried out to evaluate the performance of SARS resequencing GeneChips. Two human SARS-CoV strains (CDC#200301157 and Urbani) were resequenced by the SARS GeneChips. Five overlapping PCR amplicons were generated for each strain and hybridized with these GeneChips. The successfully hybridized GeneChips generated nucleotide sequences of nearly complete genomes for the two SARS-CoV strains with an average call rate of 94.6%. Multiple alignments of nucleotide sequences obtained from SARS GeneChips and conventional sequencing revealed full concordance. Furthermore, the GeneChip-based analysis revealed no additional polymorphic sites. The results of this study suggest that GeneChip-based genome characterization is fast and reproducible. Thus, SARS resequencing GeneChips may be employed as an alternate tool to obtain genome sequences of SARS-CoV strains pathogenic for humans in order to further understand the transmission dynamics of these viruses.     

SARS冠状病毒的起源研究进展

SARS冠状病毒（SARS-CoV）是一种新现病毒,可感染多种动物,果子狸是人类sARs-CoV重要的动物宿主之一,是已知较理想的实验动物模型。遗传因素在SARS-CoV的出现过程中起重要作用,它很可能是哺乳动物和鸟类冠状病毒之间重组产生的新物种,但发生基因重组不是SARS在人群中暴发的原因。     

Response of memory CD8+ T cells to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus in recovered SARS patients and healthy individuals

To date, the pathogenesis of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in humans is still not well understood. SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV)-specific CTL responses, in particular their magnitude and duration of postinfection immunity, have not been extensively studied. In this study, we found that heat-inactivated SARS-CoV elicited recall CTL responses to newly identified spike protein-derived epitopes (SSp-1, S978, and S1202) in peripheral blood of all HLA-A*0201(+) recovered SARS patients over 1 year postinfection. Intriguingly, heat-inactivated SARS-CoV elicited recall-like CTL responses to SSp-1 but not to S978, S1202, or dominant epitopes from several other human viruses in 5 of 36 (13.8%) HLA-A*0201(+) healthy donors without any contact history with SARS-CoV. SSp-1-specific CTLs expanded from memory T cells of both recovered SARS patients, and the five exceptional healthy donors shared a differentiated effector CTL phenotype, CD45RA(+)CCR7(-)CD62L(-), and expressed CCR5 and CD44. However, compared with the high avidity of SSp-1-specific CTLs derived from memory T cells of recovered SARS patients, SSp-1-specific CTLs from the five exceptional healthy donors were of low avidity, as determined by their rapid tetramer dissociation kinetics and reduced cytotoxic reactivity, IFN-gamma secretion, and intracellular production of IFN-gamma, TNF-alpha, perforin, and granzyme A. These results indicate that SARS-CoV infection induces strong and long-lasting CTL-mediated immunity in surviving SARS patients, and that cross-reactive memory T cells to SARS-CoV may exist in the T cell repertoire of a small subset of healthy individuals and can be reactivated by SARS-CoV infection.     

Identification and characterization of the putative fusion peptide of the severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus spike protein

Severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) is a newly identified member of the family Coronaviridae and poses a serious public health threat. Recent studies indicated that the SARS-CoV viral spike glycoprotein is a class I viral fusion protein. A fusion peptide present at the N-terminal region of class I viral fusion proteins is believed to initiate viral and cell membrane interactions and subsequent fusion. Although the SARS-CoV fusion protein heptad repeats have been well characterized, the fusion peptide has yet to be identified. Based on the conserved features of known viral fusion peptides and using Wimley and White interfacial hydrophobicity plots, we have identified two putative fusion peptides (SARS(WW-I) and SARS(WW-II)) at the N terminus of the SARS-CoV S2 subunit. Both peptides are hydrophobic and rich in alanine, glycine, and/or phenylalanine residues and contain a canonical fusion tripeptide along with a central proline residue. Only the SARS(WW-I) peptide strongly partitioned into the membranes of large unilamellar vesicles (LUV), adopting a beta-sheet structure. Likewise, only SARS(WW-I) induced the fusion of LUV and caused membrane leakage of vesicle contents at peptide/lipid ratios of 1:50 and 1:100, respectively. The activity of this synthetic peptide appeared to be dependent on its amino acid (aa) sequence, as scrambling the peptide rendered it unable to partition into LUV, assume a defined secondary structure, or induce both fusion and leakage of LUV. Based on the activity of SARS(WW-I), we propose that the hydrophobic stretch of 19 aa corresponding to residues 770 to 788 is a fusion peptide of the SARS-CoV S2 subunit.     

Evaluation of affymetrix severe acute respiratory syndrome resequencing GeneChips in characterization of the genomes of two strains of coronavirus infecting humans

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was discovered during a recent global outbreak of atypical pneumonia. A number of immunologic and molecular studies of the clinical samples led to the conclusion that a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV) was associated with the outbreak. Later, a SARS resequencing GeneChip was developed by Affymetrix to characterize the complete genome of SARS-CoV on a single GeneChip. The present study was carried out to evaluate the performance of SARS resequencing GeneChips. Two human SARS-CoV strains (CDC#200301157 and Urbani) were resequenced by the SARS GeneChips. Five overlapping PCR amplicons were generated for each strain and hybridized with these GeneChips. The successfully hybridized GeneChips generated nucleotide sequences of nearly complete genomes for the two SARS-CoV strains with an average call rate of 94.6%. Multiple alignments of nucleotide sequences obtained from SARS GeneChips and conventional sequencing revealed full concordance. Furthermore, the GeneChip-based analysis revealed no additional polymorphic sites. The results of this study suggest that GeneChip-based genome characterization is fast and reproducible. Thus, SARS resequencing GeneChips may be employed as an alternate tool to obtain genome sequences of SARS-CoV strains pathogenic for humans in order to further understand the transmission dynamics of these viruses.