Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a highly transmissible and pathogenic coronavirus that emerged in late 2019 and has caused a pandemic of acute respiratory disease, ...named 'coronavirus disease 2019' (COVID-19), which threatens human health and public safety. In this Review, we describe the basic virology of SARS-CoV-2, including genomic characteristics and receptor use, highlighting its key difference from previously known coronaviruses. We summarize current knowledge of clinical, epidemiological and pathological features of COVID-19, as well as recent progress in animal models and antiviral treatment approaches for SARS-CoV-2 infection. We also discuss the potential wildlife hosts and zoonotic origin of this emerging virus in detail.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) are two highly transmissible and pathogenic viruses that emerged in humans at the ...beginning of the 21st century. Both viruses likely originated in bats, and genetically diverse coronaviruses that are related to SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV were discovered in bats worldwide. In this Review, we summarize the current knowledge on the origin and evolution of these two pathogenic coronaviruses and discuss their receptor usage; we also highlight the diversity and potential of spillover of bat-borne coronaviruses, as evidenced by the recent spillover of swine acute diarrhoea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV) to pigs.
Distributed quantum metrology can enhance the sensitivity for sensing spatially distributed parameters beyond the classical limits. Here we demonstrate distributed quantum phase estimation with ...discrete variables to achieve Heisenberg limit phase measurements. Based on parallel entanglement in modes and particles, we demonstrate distributed quantum sensing for both individual phase shifts and an averaged phase shift, with an error reduction up to 1.4 dB and 2.7 dB below the shot-noise limit. Furthermore, we demonstrate a combined strategy with parallel mode entanglement and multiple passes of the phase shifter in each mode. In particular, our experiment uses six entangled photons with each photon passing the phase shifter up to six times, and achieves a total number of photon passes N = 21 at an error reduction up to 4.7 dB below the shot-noise limit. Our research provides a faithful verification of the benefit of entanglement and coherence for distributed quantum sensing in general quantum networks.Distributed quantum metrology is demonstrated for both individual and averaged phase shifts by using discrete-variable entangled photons. An error reduction of 4.7 dB below the shot-noise limit is achieved when a total number of photon passes is 21.
A large number of SARS-related coronaviruses (SARSr-CoV) have been detected in horseshoe bats since 2005 in different areas of China. However, these bat SARSr-CoVs show sequence differences from SARS ...coronavirus (SARS-CoV) in different genes (S, ORF8, ORF3, etc) and are considered unlikely to represent the direct progenitor of SARS-CoV. Herein, we report the findings of our 5-year surveillance of SARSr-CoVs in a cave inhabited by multiple species of horseshoe bats in Yunnan Province, China. The full-length genomes of 11 newly discovered SARSr-CoV strains, together with our previous findings, reveals that the SARSr-CoVs circulating in this single location are highly diverse in the S gene, ORF3 and ORF8. Importantly, strains with high genetic similarity to SARS-CoV in the hypervariable N-terminal domain (NTD) and receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the S1 gene, the ORF3 and ORF8 region, respectively, were all discovered in this cave. In addition, we report the first discovery of bat SARSr-CoVs highly similar to human SARS-CoV in ORF3b and in the split ORF8a and 8b. Moreover, SARSr-CoV strains from this cave were more closely related to SARS-CoV in the non-structural protein genes ORF1a and 1b compared with those detected elsewhere. Recombination analysis shows evidence of frequent recombination events within the S gene and around the ORF8 between these SARSr-CoVs. We hypothesize that the direct progenitor of SARS-CoV may have originated after sequential recombination events between the precursors of these SARSr-CoVs. Cell entry studies demonstrated that three newly identified SARSr-CoVs with different S protein sequences are all able to use human ACE2 as the receptor, further exhibiting the close relationship between strains in this cave and SARS-CoV. This work provides new insights into the origin and evolution of SARS-CoV and highlights the necessity of preparedness for future emergence of SARS-like diseases.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Bat Coronaviruses in China Fan, Yi; Zhao, Kai; Shi, Zheng-Li ...
Viruses,
03/2019, Letnik:
11, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
During the past two decades, three zoonotic coronaviruses have been identified as the cause of large-scale disease outbreaks⁻Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome ...(MERS), and Swine Acute Diarrhea Syndrome (SADS). SARS and MERS emerged in 2003 and 2012, respectively, and caused a worldwide pandemic that claimed thousands of human lives, while SADS struck the swine industry in 2017. They have common characteristics, such as they are all highly pathogenic to humans or livestock, their agents originated from bats, and two of them originated in China. Thus, it is highly likely that future SARS- or MERS-like coronavirus outbreaks will originate from bats, and there is an increased probability that this will occur in China. Therefore, the investigation of bat coronaviruses becomes an urgent issue for the detection of early warning signs, which in turn minimizes the impact of such future outbreaks in China. The purpose of the review is to summarize the current knowledge on viral diversity, reservoir hosts, and the geographical distributions of bat coronaviruses in China, and eventually we aim to predict virus hotspots and their cross-species transmission potential.
In December 2019, a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) caused an outbreak in Wuhan, China, and soon spread to other parts of the world. It was believed that 2019-nCoV was transmitted through respiratory ...tract and then induced pneumonia, thus molecular diagnosis based on oral swabs was used for confirmation of this disease. Likewise, patient will be released upon two times of negative detection from oral swabs. However, many coronaviruses can also be transmitted through oral-fecal route by infecting intestines. Whether 2019-nCoV infected patients also carry virus in other organs like intestine need to be tested. We conducted investigation on patients in a local hospital who were infected with this virus. We found the presence of 2019-nCoV in anal swabs and blood as well, and more anal swab positives than oral swab positives in a later stage of infection, suggesting shedding and thereby transmitted through oral-fecal route. We also showed serology test can improve detection positive rate thus should be used in future epidemiology. Our report provides a cautionary warning that 2019-nCoV may be shed through multiple routes.
High-performance pervaporation membranes have potential in industrial separation applications, but overcoming the permeability-selectivity trade-off is a challenge. We report a strategy to create ...highly flexible metal-organic framework nanosheet (MOF-NS) membranes with a faveolate structure on polymer substrates for alcohol-water separation. The controlled growth followed by a surface-coating method effectively produced flexible and defect-free superhydrophobic MOF-NS membranes. The reversible deformation of the flexible MOF-NS and the vertical interlamellar pathways were captured with electron microscopy. Molecular simulations confirmed the structure and revealed transport mechanism. The ultrafast transport channels in MOF-NS exhibited an ultrahigh flux and a separation factor of 8.9 in the pervaporation of 5 weight % ethanol-water at 40°C, which can be used for biofuel recovery. MOF-NS and polydimethylsiloxane synergistically contribute to the separation performance.
Honeycomb channels enhance separations
Pervaporation membranes use a combination of permeation and evaporation for energy-efficient separations of volatile compounds from solutions. Xu
et al
. designed a strategy to fabricate defect-free superhydrophobic metal-organic framework (MOF) nanosheet membranes. Instead of dispersing the MOFs into a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix, the authors grew a continuous and uniform layer of embedded MOF seeds on polymeric substrates that were then sealed with PDMS. This procedure results in a honeycomb-like structure with high flexibility and fast molecular transport channels, thus enhancing the separation of alcohols from water. —MSL
Flexible metal-organic framework honeycombed nanosheet membranes are applied for alcohol-water separations.
SARS-CoV-2 spillover events Zhou, Peng; Shi, Zheng-Li
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
01/2021, Letnik:
371, Številka:
6525
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Spillover from mink to humans highlights SARS-CoV-2 transmission routes from animals
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), and COVID-19 all broke out in ...recent decades and are caused by different strains of coronavirus (CoV). These viruses are considered to originate from bats and to have been transmitted to humans through intermediate hosts. SARS-CoV was identified in palm civets in wildlife markets and MERS-CoV in dromedary camels (
1
), but the direct source of the COVID-19 causative agent, SARS-CoV-2, is still undetermined. On page 172 of this issue, Oude Munnink
et al.
(
2
) report an in-depth investigation of SARS-CoV-2 infections in animals and humans working or living in 16 mink farms in the Netherlands. SARS-CoV-2 infections were detected in 66 out of 97 (68%) of the owners, workers, and their close contacts. Some people were infected with viral strains with an animal sequence signature, providing evidence of SARS-CoV-2 spillover back and forth between animals and humans within mink farms.
Bats are presumed reservoirs of diverse coronaviruses (CoVs) including progenitors of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19. However, the ...evolution and diversification of these coronaviruses remains poorly understood. Here we use a Bayesian statistical framework and a large sequence data set from bat-CoVs (including 630 novel CoV sequences) in China to study their macroevolution, cross-species transmission and dispersal. We find that host-switching occurs more frequently and across more distantly related host taxa in alpha- than beta-CoVs, and is more highly constrained by phylogenetic distance for beta-CoVs. We show that inter-family and -genus switching is most common in Rhinolophidae and the genus Rhinolophus. Our analyses identify the host taxa and geographic regions that define hotspots of CoV evolutionary diversity in China that could help target bat-CoV discovery for proactive zoonotic disease surveillance. Finally, we present a phylogenetic analysis suggesting a likely origin for SARS-CoV-2 in Rhinolophus spp. bats.
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