Nature Communications (Jan 2021)

Isolation of MERS-related coronavirus from lesser bamboo bats that uses DPP4 and infects human-DPP4-transgenic mice

  • Susanna K. P. Lau,
  • Rachel Y. Y. Fan,
  • Longchao Zhu,
  • Kenneth S. M. Li,
  • Antonio C. P. Wong,
  • Hayes K. H. Luk,
  • Emily Y. M. Wong,
  • Carol S. F. Lam,
  • George C. S. Lo,
  • Joshua Fung,
  • Zirong He,
  • Felix C. H. Fok,
  • Rex K. H. Au-Yeung,
  • Libiao Zhang,
  • Kin-Hang Kok,
  • Kwok-Yung Yuen,
  • Patrick C. Y. Woo

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20458-9
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

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Several human coronaviruses (CoV) have been proposed to emerge from bats but evidence of direct bat-to-human transmission is slim. In this work, the authors isolate a MERS-related CoV strain directly from bats and show that it infects target cells in vitro and engineered mice through the human DDP4 receptor.