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editorial
. 2013 Oct 30;28(6):315–317. doi: 10.1007/s12250-013-3402-x

Bats as animal reservoirs for the SARS coronavirus: Hypothesis proved after 10 years of virus hunting

Manli Wang 1, Zhihong Hu 1,✉
PMCID: PMC7091109  PMID: 24174406

Abstract

Recently, the team led by Dr. Zhengli Shi from Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Dr. Peter Daszak from Ecohealth Alliance identified SL-CoVs in Chinese horseshoe bats that were 95% identical to human SARS-CoV and were able to use human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor for docking and entry. Remarkably, they isolated the first known live bat SL-CoV that replicates in human and related cells. Their findings provide clear evidence that some SL-CoVs circulating in bats are capable of infecting and replicating in human (Ge X Y, et al., 2013).

Keywords: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, Receptor Binding Domain, Wuhan Institute

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Articles from Virologica Sinica are provided here courtesy of Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

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