Table 1.

The summary of characteristics of SARS and MERS coronaviruses. Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP4), transmembrane protease serine 2 (TMPRSS2), hospitalization in the intensive care unit (ICU), and cathepsin L (CTSL).

Comparison of Virus Characteristics
Compared Characteristic	MERS-CoV	SARS-CoV	SARS-CoV-2
Receptor	DPP-4 [4], TMPRSS2 [7]	ACE2 [4] TMPRSS2 [5] CTSL [5]	ACE2 [12] TMPRSS2 [13] CTSL [13]
TMPRSS2	Essential for virus–cell fusion [5]	Essential for virus–cell fusion [5]	Essential for virus–cell fusion [13]
Cell under attack	Pneumocytes, activated leukocytes, liver and prostate, kidney [4,7]	Pneumocytes, small intestinal and colonic epithelial cells, arterial and venous endothelium, smooth muscle, macrophages [4,9]	Pneumocytes, kidney, gastrointestinal system, bladder cells [14]
Hospitalization in the ICU	Frequent [2]	Less frequent [2]	Frequent [15]
Acute Pancreatitis	No data	Single cases [8]	Single cases [15]
Hyperglycemia	No data	Transient [8]	Transient [16]