From SARS to MERS: evidence and speculation

Abstract

The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a novel zoonotic pathogen. In 2012, the infectious outbreak caused by MERS-CoV in Saudi Arabia has spread to more than 1600 patients in 26 countries, resulting in over 600 deaths. Without a travel history, few clinical and radiological features can reliably differentiate MERS from SARS. But in real world, comparing with SARS, MERS presents more vaguely defined epidemiology, more severe symptoms, and higher case fatality rate. In this review, we summarize the recent findings in the field of MERS-CoV, especially its molecular virology, interspecies mechanisms, clinical features, antiviral therapies, and the further investigation into this disease. As a newly emerging virus, many questions are not fully answered, including the exact mode of transmission chain, geographical distribution, and animal origins. Furthermore, a new protocol needs to be launched to rapidly evaluate the effects of unproven antiviral drugs and vaccine to fasten the clinical application of new drugs.

Keywords

middle east respiratory syndrome / animal origin / cross-species transmission / monoclonal antibody

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31500138) (to H.G.) and the Major Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81590763) (to H.Y.)

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Hainv Gao, Hangping Yao, Shigui Yang, and Lanjuan Li declare that they have no conflict of interest. This manuscript is a review article and does not involve a research protocol requiring approval by the relevant institutional review board or ethics committee.

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2016 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg