Decision Diagnostics Corp (DECN)

[Raffis]

Coronaviruses were identified in the mid-1960s and known to infect humans and other animals, including birds and mammals. Epithelial cells in the respiratory and gastrointestinal tract are the primary target cells. Due to these characters, viral shedding occurs via these systems and transmission can occur through different routes, i.e., fomites, airborne or fecal-oral. To date, seven coronaviruses have been shown to infect humans. Common human coronaviruses Betacoronavirus HCoV-OC43 and HCoV-HKU1, as well as Alphacoronavirus HCoV-229E, cause common colds and severe lower respiratory tract infections in infants and elderly, while Alphacoronavirus HCoV-NL63 is found to be a significant cause of (pseudo) croup and bronchiolitis in children [1].

Emerging viruses that spread to humans from an animal host are proven to be some of the deadliest diseases known [2,3]. COVID-19 is thought to be transmitted from the animals, though it has not yet been clear exactly from which animal, however the animals have been the sources of transmission as described in Fig. 1 . The recent finding shows that SARS-CoV-2 is 96% identical to a bat coronavirus [2]. We aimed to discuss the zoonotic transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to humans.

New zoonotic coronaviruses have emerged and caused outbreaks in humans; SARS-CoV (2002, Betacoronavirus, subgenus Sarbecovirus), and MERS-CoV (2012, Betacoronavirus, subgenus Merbecovirus). In late 2019, a novel coronavirus related to a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China (2019-nCoV), was identified. After that the disease designed as COVID-19. The SARS-CoV-2 is closely related to SARS-CoV and genetically clusters within Betacoronavirus subgenus Sarbecovirus [1].

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7128549/