New Jersey: Ancestral rodents have probably been repeatedly infected with coronaviruses such as SARS, which have made them resistant to pathogens, according to a new research. This means that they are likely to be asymptomatic carriers of coronaviruses such as SARS.
organized by Sean King And Mona Singh This research from Princeton University was published in the ‘Journal of PLOS Computational Biology’.
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 infection, is of zoonotic origin – it jumped from a non-human animal to humans. Previous research has shown that sugar Horseshoe Bats are a group of many SARS-like viruses and can tolerate these viruses without causing any serious symptoms.
Awareness of potential viral reservoirs to identify other animals that have adapted tolerance mechanisms to the coronavirus can spread new pathogens to humans.
In the new research, King and Singh conducted an evolutionary analysis across mammalian species of ACE2 receptors used by the SARS virus to gain entry into mammalian cells.
Primates had highly conserved sequences of amino acids in the sites of the ACE2 receptor known to bind SARS virus. However, rodents had a higher diversity – and an accelerated rate of development – in these locations.
Overall, the results indicated that SARS-like infections have not been an evolutionary driver throughout primate history, but that some rodent species are likely to have been exposed to repeated SARS-like coronavirus infections for a considerable evolutionary period.
“Our study suggests that ancestral rodents may have been repeatedly infected with coronaviruses such as SARS and have acquired some degree of tolerance or resistance to coronaviruses such as SARS as a result of these infections,” the authors said.
“This raises the tantalizing possibility that some modern rodent species may be asymptomatic carriers of SARS-like coronaviruses, including those that have yet to be discovered,” the authors said.
organized by Sean King And Mona Singh This research from Princeton University was published in the ‘Journal of PLOS Computational Biology’.
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 infection, is of zoonotic origin – it jumped from a non-human animal to humans. Previous research has shown that sugar Horseshoe Bats are a group of many SARS-like viruses and can tolerate these viruses without causing any serious symptoms.
Awareness of potential viral reservoirs to identify other animals that have adapted tolerance mechanisms to the coronavirus can spread new pathogens to humans.
In the new research, King and Singh conducted an evolutionary analysis across mammalian species of ACE2 receptors used by the SARS virus to gain entry into mammalian cells.
Primates had highly conserved sequences of amino acids in the sites of the ACE2 receptor known to bind SARS virus. However, rodents had a higher diversity – and an accelerated rate of development – in these locations.
Overall, the results indicated that SARS-like infections have not been an evolutionary driver throughout primate history, but that some rodent species are likely to have been exposed to repeated SARS-like coronavirus infections for a considerable evolutionary period.
“Our study suggests that ancestral rodents may have been repeatedly infected with coronaviruses such as SARS and have acquired some degree of tolerance or resistance to coronaviruses such as SARS as a result of these infections,” the authors said.
“This raises the tantalizing possibility that some modern rodent species may be asymptomatic carriers of SARS-like coronaviruses, including those that have yet to be discovered,” the authors said.
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