传统与现代基础理论和技术的结合--从严重急性呼吸综合征-冠状病毒发现中所获得的启示

严重急性呼吸综合征-冠状病毒(SARS-CoV)作为肆虐我国及世界的SARS病原已被确认.为数众多的分子生物学、发病机制、实验室诊断及药物和疫苗研究正在蓬勃兴起,国内外的研究热潮已逐步走向深入.本期刊出了数篇文章,介绍了有关SARS的不同领域.     

当微生物注入人体

微生物感染一直是严重威胁人类健康,导致人类死亡的主要原因,近几年来大规模流行的严重急性呼吸系统综合症(SARS)和禽流感等,更使得人人自危,谈其色变。然而,魔高一尺,道高一丈,人们将病原微生物经过减毒、灭活或利用基因工程等方法处理后制成人工主动免疫制     

重症急性呼吸系统综合症的研究现状与展望

重症急性呼吸系统综合症(SARS)的突然出现和在全世界的迅速传播,促使全球科学家正以前所未有的方式团结起来,舍力破解SARS病原并寻求预防和治疗SARS的方法。综述了SARS出现以来的最新研究并展望相关研究前沿。     

SARS和生物恐怖威胁

SARS风波在近几个星期,正值“联军”在伊拉克针对萨达姆及其所谓的大规模杀伤性武器进行摧毁和屠杀时,一种SARS流行病就像分子集束炸弹一样,通过航空旅客传播到世界各地。SARS(重症急性呼吸综合症)是一种全新的传染性疾病,它通过人的亲密接触传播,并造成约4%的死亡,这种流行病起源于中国南部的广东省,在去年11月就已经发生。今年3月,一个参与SARS病人救治的64岁医学教授刘建林(音译)从广东到香港参加一个婚礼,在到达后不久病倒住院,他要求隔离治疗,但是没被采纳,医院也没有通知接触者,结果在同一旅馆的9个人染病并传播到新加坡、加拿…     

DC-SIGN与病原体感染

C型凝集素DC—SIGN因参与艾滋病毒（HIV）感染并介导免疫启动而成为凝集素家族的研究焦点。DC—SIGN不仅参与HIV感染,而且与多种细菌、病毒和寄生虫等病原微生物的感染有着密切联系。如丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）、埃博拉病毒、巨细胞病毒、SARS病毒、结核杆菌、幽门螺杆菌以及利什曼原虫等。DC—SIGN可能在病原微生物的慢性感染和免疫逃避中发挥着重要作用。     

SARS及其病原体研究进展

严重急性呼吸道综合症(SARS)的病原体己被认定为一种新的冠状病毒-SARS冠状病毒。关于SARS冠状病毒的基因组和蛋白组研究也已取得重要进展,这为探索SARS病毒的来源与进化、研制SARS诊断试剂、开发SARS疫苗和治疗药物奠定了坚实基础。本文对严重急性呼吸道综合症病原学研究取得的一些进展进行了综述。     

SARS冠状病毒分子病毒学特性研究概况

SARS冠状病毒是导致重症急性呼吸综合征(SARS)的病原体,是最新发现的一种新型冠状病毒。近期全球众多知名实验室对SARS冠状病毒开展了多学科、全方位的研究探索。本文就SARS冠状病毒分子病毒学研究概况作一综述。     

冠状病毒是引起广州地区严重急性呼吸综合征(SARS)的主要病因

为查找引起广州地区流行的严重急性呼吸综合征(SARS)的病原体,采集患者漱口液及尸解标本,用组织培养法接种人胚肺细胞、MDCK细胞、Hep-2细胞和鸡胚分离病毒,用间接免疫荧光法检测患者恢复期血清lgG抗体,确定分离的病原是SARS的主要病因,再用套式RT—PCR、免疫电镜法鉴定病原。结果用人胚肺、Hep-2细胞在75份漱口液和3例尸解组织中分离出13株病原体,经套式RT—PCR扩增出110bp的特异产物,经测序证实为冠状病毒。制备冠状病毒的抗原,检测30份SARS病人恢复期血,其中26份血清lgG抗体阳性。同时检测30份普通发热病人血清作对照,IgG抗体全部阴性。由此证明,经组织培养分离到的病原体是引起SARS的致病因子,用分子生物学方法测序后证实为冠状病毒。     

严重急性呼吸综合征(SARS)患者不同组织中冠状病毒的分离和鉴定

严重急性呼吸综合征(SARS)自2002年11月在中国广东爆发后,已迅速蔓延成为全球性传染疾患。为了了解SARS冠状病毒的特征,对先前SARS冠状病毒PCR检测呈阳性的来自广东的3份尸检肺组织标本、2份尸检脾组织标本：来自北京的2份咽拭子标本和1份血清标本,利用10种不同的细胞系分离病毒。结果显示,上述标本在感染细胞后,分别可在293、Vero—E6、Vero、RD和HeLa细胞系中产生细胞病变(CPE)。不同标本在上述细胞系中致CPE的能力不同,但CPE出现的时间和病变形态学特征无显著性差异。以恢复期SARS病人血清为抗体,用间接免疫荧光法对感染后细胞培养的检测,冠状病毒RT-_PCR对感染后细胞RNA的检测,初步证明分离的病毒为冠状病毒。结果再次证明冠状病毒为SARS的病原,它具有较广泛的器官分布和细胞感染能力。血清中SARS冠状病毒的分离,高度提示在SARS发病过程中存在有病毒血症。     

液相芯片MASA技术用于儿童呼吸道感染病原学研究

利用多靶点液相芯片(Multi-Analyte Suspension Array,MASA)技术对引起儿童呼吸道感染(respiratorytract infections,RTI)的病原,包括人类呼吸道合胞病毒A型和B型(Human respiratory syncytial virus A and B,RSVA、RSVB)、严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒(Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus,SARS-CoV)、流行性感冒病毒A型和B型(Influenza A virus and Influenza B virus,INFa,INFb)、副流感病毒1型和3型(Parainfluenza virus 1 and 3,PIV1,PIV3)、衣原体(C.pneumoniae,CPN)和支原体(M.pneumomae,MPN)进行了病原学研究.我们采集并分析了140例患典型呼吸道感染症状儿童的咽拭子,发现在这些标本中至少被前述的一种病原感染的标本有95例,阳性率为67.86%.结果显示这些标本中上述病原感染的情况分别为RSVB感染的患儿占35.71%、PIV3感染的占4.29%、INFa感染的占28.57%、INFb感染的占2.14%、MPN感染的占3.57%、CPN感染的占17.86%,被两种以上病原混合感染的患儿有17.14%.这些标本中都没有检测到RSVA、PIV1和SARS-CoV病原的感染.RSVB病原的感染率在3岁以下的患儿中明显高于3岁以上的患儿,而INFa的感染情况则相反;在上呼吸道感染患儿中检测到INFa病原感染的比例明显高于下呼吸道感染,而RSVB病原感染的情况相反.此外,我们发现在2005年3月-5月中造成武汉地区儿童呼吸道感染的主要病原是以RSVB、INFa、CPN为主,而RSVB感染则又是引起儿童下呼吸道感染和引起低龄儿童呼吸道感染的重要病原.     

Evolution of genomes, host shifts and the geographic spread of SARS-CoV and related coronaviruses

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a novel human illness caused by a previously unrecognized coronavirus (CoV) termed SARS‐CoV. There are conflicting reports on the animal reservoir of SARS‐CoV. Many of the groups that argue carnivores are the original reservoir of SARS‐CoV use a phylogeny to support their argument. However, the phylogenies in these studies often lack outgroup and rooting criteria necessary to determine the origins of SARS‐CoV. Recently, SARS‐CoV has been isolated from various species of Chiroptera from China (e.g., Rhinolophus sinicus) thus leading to reconsideration of the original reservoir of SARS‐CoV. We evaluated the hypothesis that SARS‐CoV isolated from Chiroptera are the original zoonotic source for SARS‐CoV by sampling SARS‐CoV and non‐SARS‐CoV from diverse hosts including Chiroptera, as well as carnivores, artiodactyls, rodents, birds and humans. Regardless of alignment parameters, optimality criteria, or isolate sampling, the resulting phylogenies clearly show that the SARS‐CoV was transmitted to small carnivores well after the epidemic of SARS in humans that began in late 2002. The SARS‐CoV isolates from small carnivores in Shenzhen markets form a terminal clade that emerged recently from within the radiation of human SARS‐CoV. There is evidence of subsequent exchange of SARS‐CoV between humans and carnivores. In addition SARS‐CoV was transmitted independently from humans to farmed pigs (Sus scrofa). The position of SARS‐CoV isolates from Chiroptera are basal to the SARS‐CoV clade isolated from humans and carnivores. Although sequence data indicate that Chiroptera are a good candidate for the original reservoir of SARS‐CoV, the structural biology of the spike protein of SARS‐CoV isolated from Chiroptera suggests that these viruses are not able to interact with the human variant of the receptor of SARS‐CoV, angiotensin‐converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). In SARS‐CoV we study, both visually and statistically, labile genomic fragments and, putative key mutations of the spike protein that may be associated with host shifts. We display host shifts and candidate mutations on trees projected in virtual globes depicting the spread of SARS‐CoV. These results suggest that more sampling of coronaviruses from diverse hosts, especially Chiroptera, carnivores and primates, will be required to understand the genomic and biochemical evolution of coronaviruses, including SARS‐CoV. © The Willi Hennig Society 2008.     

Evolutionary relationships and sequence-structure determinants in human SARS coronavirus-2 spike proteins for host receptor recognition

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a pandemic infectious disease caused by novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS CoV-2). The SARS CoV-2 is transmitted more rapidly and readily than SARS CoV. Both, SARS CoV and SARS CoV-2 via their glycosylated spike proteins recognize the human angiotensin converting enzyme-2 (ACE-2) receptor. We generated multiple sequence alignments and phylogenetic trees for representative spike proteins of SARS CoV and SARS CoV-2 from various host sources in order to analyze the specificity in SARS CoV-2 spike proteins required for causing infection in humans. Our results show that among the genomes analyzed, two sequence regions in the N-terminal domain “MESEFR” and “SYLTPG” are specific to human SARS CoV-2. In the receptor-binding domain, two sequence regions “VGGNY“ and ”EIYQAGSTPCNGV” and a disulfide bridge connecting 480C and 488C in the extended loop are structural determinants for the recognition of human ACE-2 receptor. The complete genome analysis of representative SARS CoVs from bat, civet, human host sources, and human SARS CoV-2 identified the bat genome (GenBank code: MN996532.1) as closest to the recent novel human SARS CoV-2 genomes. The bat SARS CoV genomes (GenBank codes: MG772933 and MG772934) are evolutionary intermediates in the mutagenesis progression toward becoming human SARS CoV-2.     

临床应用重组SARS病毒双抗原夹心诊断试剂盒的检测效果评价

严重急性呼吸综合征(severe acute respiralory syndrome,SARS)的临床表现为非典型性肺炎.继加拿大首次完成SARS病毒株Tor2的全基因组测序后[1],世界卫生组织(WTO)宣布一种新型的冠状病毒(coronavirus)是引发SARS的病原体[2,3].由于SARS具有极强的传染性和较高的病死率(5%～15%),且早期疾病体征较难与某些非SARS病毒引起的非典型肺炎相区分[4],由此导致大量疑似病例无法确诊,以及因误诊引起的交叉感染给人们造成巨大的心理压力和社会恐慌.所以,建立快速、准确的早期诊断方法显得尤为重要.目前的实验室诊断方法中,主要有基于病毒抗体检测的免疫荧光法和酶联免疫吸附试验(ELISA),以及基于基因检测的多聚酶链式反应(PCR)和基因芯片法.其中ELISA主要是使用病毒裂解抗原,检测病毒IgG及IgM抗体的间接ELISA.由于病毒裂解抗原的复杂性,以及间接ELISA中二抗带来的假阳性结果,间接ELISA试剂在正常人群中有1.5%～2%的阳性结果.     

Understanding SARS with Wolfram approach

Stepping acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) as another type of disease has been threatening mankind since late last year. Many scientists worldwide are making great efforts to study the etiology of this disease with different approaches. 13 species of SARS virus have been sequenced. However, most people still largely rely on the traditional methods with some disadvantages. In this work, we used Wolfram approach to study the relationship among SARS viruses and between SARS viruses and other types of viruses, the effect of variations on the whole genome and the advantages in the analysis of SARS based on this novel approach. As a result, the similarities between SARS viruses and other coronavirusxes are not really higher than those between SARS viruses and non-coronaviruses.     

Orchitis: a complication of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus has been known to damage multiple organs; however, little is known about its impact on the reproductive system. In the present study, we analyzed the pathological changes of testes from six patients who died of SARS. Results suggested that SARS caused orchitis. All SARS testes displayed widespread germ cell destruction, few or no spermatozoon in the seminiferous tubule, thickened basement membrane, and leukocyte infiltration. The numbers of CD3+ T lymphocytes and CD68+ macrophages increased significantly in the interstitial tissue compared with the control group (P < 0.05). SARS viral genomic sequences were not detected in the testes by in situ hybridization. Immunohistochemistry demonstrated abundant IgG precipitation in the seminiferous epithelium of SARS testes, indicating possible immune response as the cause for the damage. Our findings indicated that orchitis is a complication of SARS. It further suggests that the reproductive functions should be followed and evaluated in recovered male SARS patients.     

Retroviral vectors pseudotyped with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus S protein

The worldwide outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was shown to be associated with a novel coronavirus (CoV) now called SARS CoV. We report here the generation of SARS CoV S protein-pseudotyped murine leukemia virus (MLV) vector particles. The wild-type S protein pseudotyped MLV vectors, although at a low efficiency. Partial deletion of the cytoplasmic tail of S dramatically increased infectivity of pseudotypes, with titers only two- to threefold lower than those of pseudotypes generated in parallel with the vesicular stomatitis virus G protein. S-pseudotyped MLV particles were used to analyze viral tropism. MLV(SARS) pseudotypes and wild-type SARS CoV displayed similar cell types and tissue and host restrictions, indicating that the expression of a functional receptor is the major restraint in permissiveness to SARS CoV infection. Efficient gene transfer could be detected in Vero and CaCo2 cells, whereas the level of gene marking of 293T, HeLa, and HepG2 cells was only slightly above background levels. A cat cell line and a dog cell line were not susceptible. Interestingly, PK-15, a porcine kidney cell line, and primary porcine kidney cells were also highly permissive for SARS S pseudotypes and wild-type SARS CoV. This finding suggests that swine may be susceptible to SARS infection and may be a source for infection of humans. Taken together, these results indicate that MLV(SARS) pseudotypes are highly valuable for functional studies of viral tropism and entry and, in addition, can be a powerful tool for the development of therapeutic entry inhibitors without posing a biohazard to human beings.     

SARS virus: The beginning of the unraveling of a new coronavirus

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus caused a severe outbreak in several regions of the world in 2003. The virus is a novel coronavirus, which may have an origin in wild animals such as civet cats in southern China. Its genome structure, gene expression pattern and protein profiles are similar to those of other coronaviruses. However, distinct patterns of several open reading frames in the SARS virus genome may contribute to its severe virulence. The potential mutability of the coronavirus genome may pose problems in the control of future SARS outbreaks. The mechanism of SARS pathogenesis may involve both direct viral cytocidal effects on the target cells and immune-mediated mechanisms. The life cycle of the SARS virus is largely unknown; however, based on the analogy with other coronaviruses, several potential targets for antiviral development are identified. Vaccines offer an important preventive measure for possible future recurrences of SARS, but the prospect for their development is still unknown because of the uncertainty regarding the role of immune responses in SARS virus pathogenesis. The comparative studies of other coronaviruses offer insights into the understanding of SARS virus.     

ACE1 polymorphism and progression of SARS

We have hypothesized that genetic predisposition influences the progression of SARS. Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE1) insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism was previously reported to show association with the adult respiratory distress syndrome, which is also thought to play a key role in damaging the lung tissues in SARS cases. This time, the polymorphism was genotyped in 44 Vietnamese SARS cases, with 103 healthy controls who had had a contact with the SARS patients and 50 controls without any contact history. SARS cases were divided into either non-hypoxemic or hypoxemic groups. Despite the small sample size, the frequency of the D allele was significantly higher in the hypoxemic group than in the non-hypoxemic group (p=0.013), whereas there was no significant difference between the SARS cases and controls, irrespective of a contact history. ACE1 might be one of the candidate genes that influence the progression of pneumonia in SARS.     

Evidence that TMPRSS2 activates the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus spike protein for membrane fusion and reduces viral control by the humoral immune response

The spike (S) protein of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) can be proteolytically activated by cathepsins B and L upon viral uptake into target cell endosomes. In contrast, it is largely unknown whether host cell proteases located in the secretory pathway of infected cells and/or on the surface of target cells can cleave SARS S. We along with others could previously show that the type II transmembrane protease TMPRSS2 activates the influenza virus hemagglutinin and the human metapneumovirus F protein by cleavage. Here, we assessed whether SARS S is proteolytically processed by TMPRSS2. Western blot analysis revealed that SARS S was cleaved into several fragments upon coexpression of TMPRSS2 (cis-cleavage) and upon contact between SARS S-expressing cells and TMPRSS2-positive cells (trans-cleavage). cis-cleavage resulted in release of SARS S fragments into the cellular supernatant and in inhibition of antibody-mediated neutralization, most likely because SARS S fragments function as antibody decoys. trans-cleavage activated SARS S on effector cells for fusion with target cells and allowed efficient SARS S-driven viral entry into targets treated with a lysosomotropic agent or a cathepsin inhibitor. Finally, ACE2, the cellular receptor for SARS-CoV, and TMPRSS2 were found to be coexpressed by type II pneumocytes, which represent important viral target cells, suggesting that SARS S is cleaved by TMPRSS2 in the lung of SARS-CoV-infected individuals. In summary, we show that TMPRSS2 might promote viral spread and pathogenesis by diminishing viral recognition by neutralizing antibodies and by activating SARS S for cell-cell and virus-cell fusion.     

Expression and functional characterization of the putative protein 8b of the severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus

SARS 8b is one of the putative accessory proteins of the severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) with unknown functions. In this study, the cellular localization and activity of this estimated 9.6 kDa protein were examined. Confocal microscopy results indicated that SARS 8b is localized in both nucleus and cytoplasm of mammalian cells. Functional study revealed that overexpression of SARS 8b induced DNA synthesis. Coexpression of SARS 8b and SARS 6, a previously characterized SARS-CoV accessory protein, did not elicit synergistic effects on DNA synthesis.