Discovery of a subgenotype of human coronavirus NL63 associated with severe lower respiratory tract infection in China, 2018

Discovery of a subgenotype of human coronavirus NL63 associated with severe lower respiratory tract infection in China, 2018

Human coronavirus NL63 (HCoV-NL63) is primarily associated with common cold in children, elderly and immunocompromised individuals. Outbreaks caused by HCoV-NL63 are rare. Here we report a cluster of HCoV-NL63 cases with severe lower respiratory tract infection that arose in Guangzhou, China, in 201...

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Main Authors: Yanqun Wang, Xin Li, Wenkuan Liu, Mian Gan, Lu Zhang, Jin Wang, Zhaoyong Zhang, Airu Zhu, Fang Li, Jing Sun, Guoxian Zhang, Zhen Zhuang, Jiaying Luo, Dehui Chen, Shuyan Qiu, Li Zhang, Duo Xu, Chris Ka Pun Mok, Fuchun Zhang, Jingxian Zhao, Rong Zhou, Jincun Zhao
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2020-01-01
Series:Emerging Microbes and Infections
Subjects:
human coronavirus NL63
new subgenotype
pneumonia
whole-genome sequencing
phylogenetic analysis
viral entry
Online Access:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/22221751.2020.1717999
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Summary:Human coronavirus NL63 (HCoV-NL63) is primarily associated with common cold in children, elderly and immunocompromised individuals. Outbreaks caused by HCoV-NL63 are rare. Here we report a cluster of HCoV-NL63 cases with severe lower respiratory tract infection that arose in Guangzhou, China, in 2018. Twenty-three hospitalized children were confirmed to be HCoV-NL63 positive, and most of whom were hospitalized with severe pneumonia or acute bronchitis. Whole genomes of HCoV-NL63 were obtained using next-generation sequencing. Phylogenetic and single amino acid polymorphism analyses showed that this outbreak was associated with two subgenotypes (C3 and B) of HCoV-NL63. Half of patients were identified to be related to a new subgenotype C3. One unique amino acid mutation at I507 L in spike protein receptor binding domain (RBD) was detected, which segregated this subgenotype C3 from other known subgenotypes. Pseudotyped virus bearing the I507 L mutation in RBD showed enhanced entry into host cells as compared to the prototype virus. This study proved that HCoV-NL63 was undergoing continuous mutation and has the potential to cause severe lower respiratory disease in humans.
ISSN:2222-1751

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