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Literature detail

COVID-19: Time to exonerate the pangolin from the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to humans.

Roger Frutos1,2 Jordi Serra-Cobo3 Tianmu Chen4 Christian A Devaux5
Affiliations 5 institutions
  1. Cirad, UMR 17, Intertryp, Montpellier, France
  2. IES, UMR 5214 Univ. Montpellier-CNRS, Montpellier, France. Electronic address: [email protected].
  3. Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, University of Barcelona, Biodiversity Research Institute, Barcelona, Spain.
  4. State Key Laboratory of Molecular Vaccinology and Molecular Diagnostics, Xiamen University, Xiamen, PR China.
  5. IHU-Méditerranée Infection and CNRS, Marseille, France.
PMID 32768565 2020 Infect Genet Evol eng ppublish
PubMed DOI Browse context

Article

Publication summary

The emergence of COVID-19 has triggered many works aiming at identifying the animal intermediate potentially involved in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to humans. The presence of SARS-CoV-2-related viruses in Malayan pangolins, in silico analysis of the ACE2 receptor polymorphism and sequence similarities between the Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) of the spike proteins of pangolin and human Sarbecoviruses led to the proposal of pangolin as intermediary. However, the binding affinity of the pangolin ACE2 receptor for SARS-CoV-2 RBD was later on reported to be low. Here, we provide evidence that the pangolin is not the intermediate animal at the origin of the human pandemic. Moreover, data available do not fit with the spillover model currently proposed for zoonotic emergence which is thus unlikely to account for this outbreak. We propose a different model to explain how SARS-CoV-2 related coronaviruses could have circulated in different species, including humans, before the emergence of COVID-19.

Coronavirus COVID-19 Pangolin SARS-CoV-2 Zoonosis Zoonotic model Pandemics Amino Acid Sequence Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 Animals Betacoronavirus Chiroptera Coronavirus Infections COVID-19 Eutheria Gene Expression Host-Pathogen Interactions Humans

Structured evidence records

Evidence records

2 total
Genomic Evolution 1 records
Genomic Evolution Extraction confidence 0.80
Key finding

Genomic sequence comparison of the spike RBD and receptor analysis showed that pangolin coronaviruses are not the evolutionary source of SARS-CoV-2 infecting humans.

Virus
SARS-CoV-2
Location
Not specified
Supporting text

The presence of SARS-CoV-2-related viruses in Malayan pangolins, in silico analysis of the ACE2 receptor polymorphism and sequence similarities between the Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) of the spike proteins of pangolin and human Sarbecoviruses led to the proposal of pangolin as intermediary.

Genes or proteins
spike; Receptor Binding Domain; ACE2
Analysis methods
sequence similarity analysis; in silico receptor analysis; phylogenetic analysis
Receptor Usage 1 records
Receptor Usage Extraction confidence 0.90
Key finding

Binding affinity between pangolin ACE2 receptor and the SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain is low, indicating poor receptor compatibility.

Virus
SARS-CoV-2
Location
Not specified
Supporting text

The presence of SARS-CoV-2-related viruses in Malayan pangolins, in silico analysis of the ACE2 receptor polymorphism and sequence similarities between the Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) of the spike proteins of pangolin and human Sarbecoviruses led to the proposal of pangolin as intermediary. However, the binding affinity of the pangolin ACE2 receptor for SARS-CoV-2 RBD was later on reported to be low.

Method
in silico analysis; binding affinity assay
Receptors
ACE2