Antibodies against MERS coronavirus in dromedary camels, United Arab Emirates, 2003 and 2013.

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) has caused an ongoing outbreak of severe acute respiratory tract infection in humans in the Arabian Peninsula since 2012. Dromedary camels have been implicated as possible viral reservoirs. We used serologic assays to analyze 651 dromedary camel serum samples from the United Arab Emirates; 151 of 651 samples were obtained in 2003, well before onset of the current epidemic, and 500 serum samples were obtained in 2013.

In-vitro renal epithelial cell infection reveals a viral kidney tropism as a potential mechanism for acute renal failure during Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) Coronavirus infection.

Background: The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) causes symptoms similar to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV), yet involving an additional component of acute renal failure (ARF) according to several published case reports. Impairment of the kidney is not typically seen in Coronavirus infections. The role of kidney infection in MERS is not understood.

Human coronavirus EMC does not require the SARS-coronavirus receptor and maintains broad replicative capability in mammalian cell lines.

A new human coronavirus (hCoV-EMC) has emerged very recently in the Middle East. The clinical presentation resembled that of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) as encountered during the epidemic in 2002/2003. In both cases, acute renal failure was observed in humans.

Replication of human coronaviruses SARS-CoV, HCoV-NL63 and HCoV-229E is inhibited by the drug FK506.

Recent research has shown that Coronavirus (CoV) replication depends on active immunophilin pathways. Here we demonstrate that the drug FK506 (Tacrolimus) inhibited strongly the growth of human coronaviruses SARS-CoV, HCoV-NL63 and HCoV-229E at low, non-cytotoxic concentrations in cell culture. As shown by plaque titration, qPCR, Luciferase- and green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter gene expression, replication was diminished by several orders of magnitude.

Human coronavirus NL63 open reading frame 3 encodes a virion-incorporated N-glycosylated membrane protein.

Background: Human pathogenic coronavirus NL63 (hCoV-NL63) is a group 1 (alpha) coronavirus commonly associated with respiratory tract infections. In addition to known non-structural and structural proteins all coronaviruses have one or more accessory proteins whose functions are mostly unknown. Our study focuses on hCoV-NL63 open reading frame 3 (ORF 3) which is a highly conserved accessory protein among coronaviruses.