Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) causes transient lower respiratory tract infection in rhesus macaques

作者：de Wit Emmie; Rasmussen Angela L; Falzarano Darryl; Bushmaker Trenton; Feldmann Friederike; Brining Douglas L; Fischer Elizabeth R; Martellaro Cynthia; Okumura Atsushi; Chang Jean; Scott Dana; Benecke Arndt G; Katze Michael G; Feldmann Heinz^*; Munster Vincent J

来源：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013, 110(41): 16598-16603.

DOI：10.1073/pnas.1310744110

• emerging infectious disease
• DPP4

In 2012, a novel betacoronavirus, designated Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus or MERS-CoV and associated with severe respiratory disease in humans, emerged in the Arabian Peninsula. To date, 108 human cases have been reported, including cases of human-to-human transmission. The availability of an animal disease model is essential for understanding pathogenesis and developing effective countermeasures. Upon a combination of intratracheal, ocular, oral, and intranasal inoculation with 7 x 10(6) 50% tissue culture infectious dose of the MERS-CoV isolate HCoV-EMC/2012, rhesus macaques developed a transient lower respiratory tract infection. Clinical signs, virus shedding, virus replication in respiratory tissues, gene expression, and cytokine and chemokine profiles peaked early in infection and decreased over time. MERS-CoV caused a multifocal, mild to marked interstitial pneumonia, with virus replication occurring mainly in alveolar pneumocytes. This tropism of MERS-CoV for the lower respiratory tract may explain the severity of the disease observed in humans and the, up to now, limited human-to-human transmission.

• 出版日期2013-10-8