BY HELEN BRANSWELL, THE CANADIAN PRESS DECEMBER 13, 2012
A new study reveals that the new SARS-like virus which has been causing infections in the Middle East behaves unusually in laboratory testing.
The unexpected behaviour of the virus may help to explain the pattern of spread of the cases so far, says senior author Christian Drosten, a leading coronavirus expert.
In essence, the new coronavirus is promiscuous, a term the virologists who authored the study use to describe the fact that it will grow in a variety of different types of animal cells, including cells from people, pigs and several species of bats.
That is not true for other known coronaviruses, which typically only grow in cells from the species they infect, says Drosten, who is the director of the institute of virology at the University of Bonn Medical Center, in Bonn, Germany.
Dutch virologist Ron Fouchier agrees that the finding is surprising.
"This is certainly unusual for a (corona)virus to have such a broad cellular host range," says Fouchier, a senior scientist with Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam. Fouchier is also an author of the paper.
It is known to have infected at least nine people from April onward, with cases recorded in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Five of the infected people have died. http://www.canada.com/Behaviour+virus+hints+pattern+spread/7695001/story.html
BY HELEN BRANSWELL, THE CANADIAN PRESS DECEMBER 13, 2012
A new study reveals that the new SARS-like virus which has been causing infections in the Middle East behaves unusually in laboratory testing.
The unexpected behaviour of the virus may help to explain the pattern of spread of the cases so far, says senior author Christian Drosten, a leading coronavirus expert.
In essence, the new coronavirus is promiscuous, a term the virologists who authored the study use to describe the fact that it will grow in a variety of different types of animal cells, including cells from people, pigs and several species of bats.
That is not true for other known coronaviruses, which typically only grow in cells from the species they infect, says Drosten, who is the director of the institute of virology at the University of Bonn Medical Center, in Bonn, Germany.
Dutch virologist Ron Fouchier agrees that the finding is surprising.
"This is certainly unusual for a (corona)virus to have such a broad cellular host range," says Fouchier, a senior scientist with Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam. Fouchier is also an author of the paper.
It is known to have infected at least nine people from April onward, with cases recorded in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Five of the infected people have died. http://www.canada.com/Behaviour+virus+hints+pattern+spread/7695001/story.html
