Nature: is it a new coronavirus transmitted by pangolin?

Authors: in February 7th novel coronavirus was the potential intermediate host of the new type coronavirus by researchers in south of the Five Ridges modern agricultural science and technology Guangdong laboratory, South China Agricultural University professor Shen Yongyi and Xiao Lihua The novel coronavirus electron microscope photograph of pangolin trees was held at the South China Agricultural University press conference The headmaster Liu Yahong said: "in view of the severity of the current epidemic prevention and control, we choose to publish the findings to the public at the first time, hoping to help the scientific prevention and control of the epidemic situation and provide more reference for more scientists to further work." But the work has not yet been published Subsequently, Nature reported this Scientists believe that the prediction based on genetic analysis seems reasonable, but it should be noted that the work of the researchers has not been published in full "This is a very interesting observation," said Edward Holmes, an evolutionary virologist at the University of Sydney, Australia Although we need to see more details, it makes sense because there are already some data showing that pangolin viruses are closely related to 2019 ncov " Since the outbreak, the possible animal source of 2019 ncov has been a key issue for researchers It is known to spread in mammals and birds Previously, researchers have proposed that the virus originally came from bats, based on the hypothesis that its gene sequence is similar to other known coronaviruses But the virus is likely to be transmitted to humans through another animal It's like the coronavirus that caused SARS spread from bats to civets and then to humans Previously, a study published in viruses showed that coronavirus may be one of the causes of death of pangolin, while 2019-ncov and pangolin coronavirus use receptors with similar molecular structure to infect cells The novel coronavirus is already a good candidate for the intermediate host of the new coronavirus, so it is interesting for researchers to discover such a close sequence, David Robertson, a computer virologist at University of Glasgow, said Pangolin is a second-class protected animal in China, and all eight species of pangolin are listed in cites However, illegal trafficking is still rampant The price of a smuggled pangolin can be sold to 10000 yuan, making its population endangered According to Chinese law, people who sell pangolins may be sentenced to more than 10 years in prison Last December, the coronavirus appeared in Wuhan, China, and is believed to have spread to humans from the South China seafood market in Wuhan, where many of the first infected people worked Pangolins are not on the list of animals sold on the market, perhaps because it is illegal to buy or sell them Professor Feng yaoyu of South China Agricultural University said in an interview: "we are not samples from the seafood market in South China We are based on the macro genomics analysis of online database Then we found pangolin from the macro genome, which is likely to be highly similar to the virus we found now Later, when we went back to the previous samples, we found that they were very similar " Novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV is not yet available for comment by Shen Yongyi and Xiao Lihua But the president of South China Agricultural University, Liu Ya Hong, said at a news conference that the results of the study will be released soon to help control the new coronavirus Scientists hope the paper will provide some details, including where the team found pangolins carrying similar viruses "Another key detail is where researchers found the virus in pangolins and whether it was isolated from blood samples or rectal swabs," said arinjay Banerjee, a coronavirus researcher at McMaster University in Canada This will help determine how it spreads the virus to humans and how it can be prevented in the future Kristian Andersen, an immunologist and computational biologist at the Scripps Institute in the United States, has compared publicly available pangolin virus sequences, saying: "I believe this may be true because I found that they are similar to the 2019 ncov sequence I look forward to the reports and data that will be released " References: 1 Did pangolins spread the China coronavirus to people? Doi: 10.1038 / d41586-020-00364-2 Viral genetics reviewed Sendai virus and coronavirus infection of Malayan pangolins (Manis javanica) doi: 10.3390/v111110979