Initial Analysis of Complete Genome Sequences of SARS Coronavirus

TheoutbreakoftheSevereAcuteRespiratorySyndrome (SARS)startingfromsouthernChinaearlythisyearhasasignificantinfluenceonpublichealth .TheidentificationofSARS CoVasthemajorcausativefactoroftheSARSdiseaseandthegenomicse quencingofthevirusmakesitpossibleforbioinformaticsstudy .Atotalof16SARS CoVgenomesequencesareavailablefromthenucleicaciddatabaseGenBank EMBL DDBJby 2 0May 2 0 0 3.SARS CoVZJ0 1(AY2 970 2 8 1)wasshowninGenBankaftertheanalysiswasperformed .12completegenomeswereretri…     

Neutralizing antibody against severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-coronavirus spike is highly effective for the protection of mice in the murine SARS model

We evaluated the efficacy of three SARS vaccine candidates in a murine SARS model utilizing low-virulence Pp and SARS-CoV coinfection. Vaccinated mice were protected from severe respiratory disease in parallel with a low virus titer in the lungs and a high neutralizing antibody titer in the plasma. Importantly, the administration of spike protein-specific neutralizing monoclonal antibody protected mice from the disease, indicating that the neutralization is sufficient for protection. Moreover, a high level of IL-6 and MCP-1 production, but not other 18 cytokines tested, on days 2 and 3 after SARS-CoV infection was closely linked to the virus replication and disease severity, suggesting the importance of these cytokines in the lung pathogenicity of SARS-CoV infection.     

Elucidation of the stability and functional regions of the human coronavirus OC43 nucleocapsid protein

Human coronavirus OC43 (HCoV‐OC43) is one of the causes of the “common cold” in human during seasons of cold weather. The primary function of the HCoV‐OC43 nucleocapsid protein (N protein) is to recognize viral genomic RNA, which leads to ribonucleocapsid formation. Here, we characterized the stability and identified the functional regions of the recombinant HCoV‐OC43 N protein. Circular dichroism and fluorescence measurements revealed that the HCoV‐OC43 N protein is more highly ordered and stabler than the SARS‐CoV N protein previously studied. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) experiments showed that the affinity of HCoV‐OC43 N protein for RNA was approximately fivefold higher than that of N protein for DNA. Moreover, we found that the HCoV‐OC43 N protein contains three RNA‐binding regions in its N‐terminal region (residues 1–173) and central‐linker region (residues 174–232 and 233–300). The binding affinities of the truncated N proteins and RNA follow the order: residues 1–173–residues 233–300 > residues 174–232. SPR experiments demonstrated that the C‐terminal region (residues 301–448) of HCoV‐OC43 N protein lacks RNA‐binding activity, while crosslinking and gel filtration analyses revealed that the C‐terminal region is mainly involved in the oligomerization of the HCoV‐OC43 N protein. This study may benefit the understanding of the mechanism of HCoV‐OC43 nucleocapsid formation.     

Australian Hajj pilgrims' knowledge about MERS-CoV and other respiratory infections

正Dear Editor,With the intense crowding in mass gatherings such as Hajj,there is a high risk of acquisition of airborne in-fections with the potential for its transmission in the pilgrims’country of origin(Memish Z A,et al.,2014).The risk of importing serious infections from Hajj has escalated since the emergence of the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus(MERS-CoV)in Saudi Arabia and other neighbouring countries from September2012.Active surveillance of Hajj pilgrims in 2012 and 2013     

Expression and purification of recombinant feline interferon in the baculovirus-insect larvae system

Feline interferons (FeIFNs) are cytokines with antiviral, antitumor and immunomodulatory functions used as therapeutic agents in a variety of veterinary diseases. In this work, FeIFN-α7 and FeIFN-α7xArg containing eight residues of arginine were expressed in Sf9 cells and insect larvae. At 4 days post-infection (dpi), the concentrations of FeIFN-α7 and FeIFN-α7xArg in suspension culture were (1.28 ± 0.15) × 10⁶ U ml⁻¹ and (1.3 ± 0.2) × 10⁶ U ml⁻¹ respectively. The maximum expression levels of FeIFN-α7 and FeIFN-α7xArg were (3.7 ± 0.2) × 10⁶ U ml⁻¹ and (3.5 ± 0.4) × 10⁶ U ml⁻¹ at 2 dpi in Rachiplusia nu larvae and (1.1 ± 0.2) × 10⁶ U ml⁻¹ and (1.0 ± 0.15) × 10⁶ U ml⁻¹ at 5 dpi in Spodoptera frugiperda larvae respectively. R. nu was a better host for FeIFN-α7 and FeIFN-α7xArg expression. The 8xArg tag did not affect the biological activity of FeIFN-α7 and was useful to promote the FeIFN-α7xArg adsorption on ion exchange chromatography (IEC), allowing its purification in a single step from supernatant culture and R. nu larvae. FeIFN-α7xArg was purified from the larval extract with a yield of 70% and a purification factor of 25 free of viruses. We conclude that R. nu larvae are new low-cost hosts for the expression of recombinant FeIFN-α7.     

英国等地不明原因儿童肝炎的暴发情况及病因

2022年3月31日,苏格兰首先报告了5例患有不明原因重症肝炎的儿童。世界卫生组织（World Health Organization,WHO）于4月15日就不明原因儿童肝炎发布指导性意见,对确诊病例、可疑病例和流行病学相关病例进行了定义。截至4月21日,已有12个国家报告169例确诊病例,从1月龄至16岁不等。临床表现为急性肝炎,谷草转氨酶（aspartate aminotransferase,AST）或谷丙转氨酶（alanine aminotransferase,ALT）>500IU/L,多数患儿有黄疸、恶心、腹痛、乏力、嗜睡和胃肠道症状,包括腹泻和呕吐,大多数患儿无发热。17例接受了肝移植,至少报告1例死亡。考虑到流行病学特点和患儿的临床特征,感染性因素导致该疾病的可能性更大。病例的实验室检查结果均排除了甲、乙、丙、丁和戊型肝炎,并提示腺病毒可能与不明原因儿童肝炎有关,但其他感染性因素或环境因素仍不能完全排除。本文对此次不明原因儿童肝炎的发展情况及其可能病因进行了介绍。该疾病存在输入性风险,我国应对此早做准备。     

基于新型冠状病毒S蛋白结构及入胞机制的抗体与药物研发

新型冠状病毒肺炎,世界卫生组织命名为"2019冠状病毒病"(corona virus disease 2019,COVID-19),是一种由2019新型冠状病毒(2019-nCov)感染导致的肺炎.目前新冠肺炎在全球广泛流行,且疫情尚未得到全部控制.由于新型冠状病毒表面的刺突蛋白(spike protein,S)介导病...     

SARS冠状病毒Nsp14基因的克隆与表达

对SARS冠状病毒的非结构蛋白Nsp14的基因全长进行了克隆表达。根据公布的SARS冠状病毒的非结构蛋白Nsp14的基因序列设计引物,用PCR的方法把该基因从SARS冠状病毒的cDNA片段中扩增出来,经限制性内切酶BamHI与XhoI双酶切后插入到原核表达载体pET30a( )中,建成重组载体pET30a-Exo。重组载体转化大肠杆菌并进行诱导表达,通过原核表达的方法得到了该蛋白。这为该蛋白的进一步研究奠定了基础。