A SARS-CoV-2-Related Virus from Malayan Pangolin Causes Lung Infection without Severe Disease in Human ACE2-Transgenic Mice
Meiqin Liu, Haofeng Lin, Jing Li, Ying Chen, Yun Luo, Wei Zhang, Ben Hu, Fengjuan Tian, Yunjia Hu, Yujie Liu, Ren-Di Jiang, Qian-Chun Gong, Ang Li, Zi-Shuo Guo, Bei Li, Xing‐Lou Yang, Yigang Tong, Zheng‐Li Shi
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2, which likely spilled over from wildlife, is the third highly pathogenic human coronavirus. Being highly transmissible, it is perpetuating a pandemic and continuously posing a severe threat to global public health. Several SARS-CoV-2-related coronaviruses (SARSr-CoV-2) in bats and pangolins have been identified since the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak. It is therefore important to assess their potential of crossing species barriers for better understanding of their risk of future emergence. In this work, we investigated the biological features and pathogenicity of a SARSr-CoV-2 strain isolated from a smuggled Malayan pangolin, named MpCoV-GX. We found that MpCoV-GX can utilize ACE2 from 7 species for cell entry and infect cell lines derived from a variety of mammalian species. MpCoV-GX can infect mice expressing human ACE2 without causing severe disease. These findings suggest the potential of cross-species transmission of MpCoV-GX, and highlight the need of further surveillance of SARSr-CoV-2 in pangolins and other potential animal hosts.