A team of US researchers identified a shift in canine coronavirus that points to a possible pattern of change found in other coronaviruses and may provide clues to how they spread to humans from animals, Cornell Chronicles reports.
Canine coronavirus was first identified in two Malaysian patients who developed pneumonia in 2017-18. A group of scientists later isolated the canine coronavirus, sequenced it and published their findings in 2021.
A team led by Cornell and Temple University researchers has discovered a pattern in the terminus canine coronavirus spike protein - the part of the virus that allows it to enter a host cell.
The pattern shows the virus switches from infecting the animal host's intestines and respiratory system to solely infecting the human host's respiratory system, according to the study.
The researchers discovered a mutation in the N terminus, a part of the molecule with modifications that were also seen in another coronavirus that hopped from bats to humans and caused the common cold.
“This study identifies some of the molecular mechanisms underlying a host shift from dog coronavirus to a new human host, that may also be important in the circulation of a new human coronavirus that we previously didn’t know about,” said Michael Stanhope, professor of public and ecosystem health in the College of Veterinary Medicine.
In the study, published in the journal Viruses, the researchers used cutting-edge molecular evolution methods to analyze how pressures from natural selection may have influenced the development of the canine coronavirus.
In 2021, the same canine coronavirus strain discovered in Malaysia was found in a few patients in Haiti who also suffered respiratory disease, Cornell Chronicles reported.
Stanhope believes that more research is needed to determine whether the viral shifts and transmits to humans occurred naturally in different parts of the world or if this coronavirus has been circulating in the human population for decades without being detected.
The study is funded by the US Food and Drug Administration’s Veterinary Laboratory Investigation and Response Network and the National Institutes of Health.
