Interferon Treatment Eradicates a New Human Coronavirus in a Culture Model

Like SARS-CoV, HCoV-EMC is of zoonotic origin and closely related to bat coronaviruses.

To get a handle on this potentially fatal pathogen, investigators at Kantonal Hospital (St. Gallen, Switzerland) developed an in vitro model based on human bronchial epithelial cells, which are highly susceptible to HCoV-EMC infection and in which the virus is able to multiply at a faster initial rate than the SARS virus. The investigators employed advanced genomic research tools such as reverse transcription (RT)-PCR and RNAseq data to experimentally determine the identity of seven HCoV-EMC subgenomic mRNAs.

Results published in the February 19, 2013, online edition of the journal mBio revealed that while the human bronchial epithelial cells were readily responsive to type I and type III interferon (IFN), neither a pronounced inflammatory cytokine nor any detectable IFN responses were found following HCoV-EMC infection, suggesting that innate immune evasion mechanisms and possible IFN antagonists of the virus were operational in the human host. On the other hand, type I and type III IFN were found to efficiently reduce HCoV-EMC replication in the human cell cultures, providing a possible treatment option in cases of suspected HCoV-EMC infection.

"Surprisingly, this coronavirus grows very efficiently on human epithelial cells," said senior author Dr. Volker Thiel, a senior research fellow at Kantonal Hospital. "The other thing we found is that the viruses (HCoV-EMC, SARS, and the common cold virus) are all similar in terms of host responses: they do not provoke a huge innate immune response. We do not know whether the cases we observe are the tip of the iceberg, or whether many more people are infected without showing severe symptoms."

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