美国佛罗里达大学J. Glenn Morris Jr、Marco Salemi等研究人员合作发现海地儿童中的猪德尔塔冠状病毒的独立感染。相关论文于2021年11月17日在线发表在《自然》杂志上。

研究人员在三名患有急性发热疾病的海地儿童血浆样本中发现了猪δ-冠状病毒毒株。基因组和进化分析显示，人类感染至少是两个独立的人畜共患病结果，这些不同的病毒系在编码Nsp15和突刺糖蛋白的基因上获得了相同的突变特征。特别是，结构分析预测，包含受体结合结构域的突刺S1亚基的其中一个变化可能会影响蛋白质的灵活性以及它与宿主细胞受体的结合。这项研究结果强调了进化变化和适应性导致冠状病毒在已知人类相关冠状病毒群之外人类感染的可能性，特别是在可能存在人与动物密切接触的情况下。

据介绍，自2003年以来，冠状病毒已经引起了三次大的流行病，包括正在进行的SARS-CoV-2大流行。在每个案例中，冠状病毒在人类中的出现都与来自动物库的人畜共患病传播有关，这强调了这种病原体是多么容易溢出并适应新物种。在冠状病毒科的四个公认的属中，迄今为止报告的人类感染只限于α-冠状病毒和β-冠状病毒。

附：英文原文

Title: Independent infections of porcine deltacoronavirus among Haitian children

Author: Lednicky, John A., Tagliamonte, Massimiliano S., White, Sarah K., Elbadry, Maha A., Alam, Md. Mahbubul, Stephenson, Caroline J., Bonny, Tania S., Loeb, Julia C., Telisma, Taina, Chavannes, Sonese, Ostrov, David A., Mavian, Carla, Beau De Rochars, Valery Madsen, Salemi, Marco, Morris, J. Glenn

Issue&Volume: 2021-11-17

Abstract: Coronaviruses have caused three major epidemics since 2003, including the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. In each case, the emergence of coronavirus in our species has been associated with zoonotic transmissions from animal reservoirs1,2, underscoring how prone such pathogens are to spill over and adapt to new species. Among the four recognized genera of the family Coronaviridae, human infections reported so far have been limited to alphacoronaviruses and betacoronaviruses3,4,5. Here we identify porcine deltacoronavirus strains in plasma samples of three Haitian children with acute undifferentiated febrile illness. Genomic and evolutionary analyses reveal that human infections were the result of at least two independent zoonoses of distinct viral lineages that acquired the same mutational signature in the genes encoding Nsp15 and the spike glycoprotein. In particular, structural analysis predicts that one of the changes in the spike S1 subunit, which contains the receptor-binding domain, may affect the flexibility of the protein and its binding to the host cell receptor. Our findings highlight the potential for evolutionary change and adaptation leading to human infections by coronaviruses outside of the previously recognized human-associated coronavirus groups, particularly in settings where there may be close human–animal contact.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04111-z

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04111-z