/10.1080/2221751.2020.172341 ®EMi Taylor&Franc Commentary OPEN ACCESS An emerging coronavirus causing pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan,China: calling for developing therapeutic and prophylactic strategies Shibo Jiang ob Lanying Du and Zhengli shi 4 Academy of Sciences,Wuhan,People'Republic of China ARTICLE HISTORY Received 20 January 2020;Accepted 21 January 2020 In December of 2019,an outbreak of pneumonia 1).Both bat-SL-CoV ZC45 and ZXC21 were found in Chinese horseshoe bats (Rhinolopus sinicus)in ina an stpatien d to a single seaf h ang Pro ince,C ina betwe seafood infect suck wild animals ting that the patho n may he live animals in the seafood market.2019-nCov ma transmitted from an animal to human.The pathog be originated from bats or live animals exposure to the materials contaminated with bat droppings in the t or area orted tha y virus infection including reverse trans ing 25 being discharged and 3 having died.Among the 170 patient (rRT-PCR),reverse transcription loop-mediated iso em sunder treatment in hospitals,126,35,and p://www.hand con T-LA d rea -130-nchina-de d [41.The useful for detecting novel coronaviruses not only in humans,but also in animals for identification of animal hey did not visit the s ahmgh crpirorlntemetiatehoeto 2019-n( WHO utthe putativ the concern of limited human-to-human tran ion of 2019-nCoV (http://www.thatsmags.com/china/post/ by sequencing of the amplicon for characterization nd confrmation (https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream 1e/106 74/WHO ratory B of SARS-Cov and se S al bat Bank.accession no.MN908947).The phylogenetic SLCoVs,we predicted that the cleavage site for ger analysis revealed that the gene sequence of 2016 ting S1 and S2 subunits is located at R694/569 nCoV is 899 identical to that of bat SARS-like corona Figure 1).SI subuni contains id o th (NI tical to that of SARS-CoV Tor2 (JX163927),sug sible for the hinding of the virion to the re ptor on the that 2019-nCoV also belongs to betacoronavirus Line host cell.They also contain several conformational age B,but has closer homology to bat-SL-CoVZC45 neutralizing epitopes,serving as a target for developing and bat-SL-CoVZXC21 than SARS-CoV [2](Figure neutralizing antibodies and vaccines [5].$2 subunit y Lat School of Bas ve nov Commentary An emerging coronavirus causing pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan, China: calling for developing therapeutic and prophylactic strategies Shibo Jiang a,b, Lanying Du b and Zhengli Shi c a Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Virology (MOE/NHC/CAMS), School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; b Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute, New York Blood Center, New York, NY, USA; c CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China ARTICLE HISTORY Received 20 January 2020; Accepted 21 January 2020 In December of 2019, an outbreak of pneumonia caused by an unknown aetiology occurred in Wuhan, China and most patients were linked to a single seafood market, which reportedly sold seafood and some live animals, including poultry, bats, marmots and other wild animals, suggesting that the pathogen may be transmitted from an animal to human. The pathogen was soon identified to be a novel coronavirus, 2019- nCoV denoted by WHO [1]. On 19 January 2020, Wuhan Health Commission reported that a total 198 cases in the 25–89-year-old range were confirmed positive for 2019-nCoV, includ￾ing 25 being discharged and 3 having died. Among the 170 patients under treatment in hospitals, 126, 35, and 9 are in mild, severe, and critical condition, respectively (http://www.thatsmags.com/china/post/30618/new￾coronavirus-spreads-to-over-130-in-china-death-toll￾rises). In addition, two patients in Thailand, one in Japan, and one in South Korea, were detected positive for 2019-nCoV. They did not visit the specific seafood market, but might have close contact with some pneu￾monia patients during their trip in Wuhan, raising the concern of limited human-to-human transmission of 2019-nCoV (http://www.thatsmags.com/china/post/ 30618/new-coronavirus-spreads-to-over-130-in￾china-death-toll-rises). Research scientists have released the full genomic sequence of 2019-nCoV, such as Wuhan-Hu-1 (Gen￾Bank, accession no. MN908947). The phylogenetic analysis revealed that the gene sequence of 2016- nCoV is 89% identical to that of bat SARS-like corona￾virus ZXC21 (bat-SL-CoVZXC21, accession no. MG772934.1) and ZC45 (MG772933.1), and 82% iden￾tical to that of SARS-CoV Tor2 (JX163927), suggesting that 2019-nCoV also belongs to betacoronavirus Line￾age B, but has closer homology to bat-SL-CoVZC45 and bat-SL-CoVZXC21 than SARS-CoV [2] (Figure 1). Both bat-SL-CoV ZC45 and ZXC21 were found in Chinese horseshoe bats (Rhinolopus sinicus) in Zhoushan city of Zhejiang Province, China between 2015 and 2017 [3], which can infect suckling rats and cause disease. Given that there were some bats and live animals in the seafood market, 2019-nCoV may be originated from bats or live animals exposure to the materials contaminated with bat droppings in the seafood market or surrounding area. The rapid identification of this novel coronavirus is attributed to recent advances in the detection of respir￾atory virus infection, including reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR), real-time reverse transcription PCR (rRT-PCR), reverse transcription loop-mediated iso￾thermal amplification (RT-LAMP), and real-time RT￾LAMP as well as multiplex nucleic acid amplification and microarray-based assays [4]. These methods are useful for detecting novel coronaviruses not only in humans, but also in animals for identification of animal reservoir or intermediate host of 2019-nCoV. WHO recommended that if there is no clue about the putative pathogen from the pneumonia outbreak, a pan-coro￾navirus assay should be used for amplification followed by sequencing of the amplicon for characterization and confirmation (https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/ handle/10665/330374/WHO-2019-nCoV-laboratory- 2020.1-eng.pdf). By aligning 2019-nCoV S protein sequence with those of SARS-CoV and several bat￾SL-CoVs, we predicted that the cleavage site for gener￾ating S1 and S2 subunits is located at R694/S695 (Figure 1). S1 subunit contains two functional domains, the N-terminal domain (NTD) and a recep￾tor-binding domain (RBD), both of which are respon￾sible for the binding of the virion to the receptor on the host cell. They also contain several conformational neutralizing epitopes, serving as a target for developing neutralizing antibodies and vaccines [5]. S2 subunit © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group, on behalf of Shanghai Shangyixun Cultural Communication Co., Ltd This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. CONTACT Shibo Jiang shibojiang@fudan.edu.cn Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Virology (MOE/NHC/CAMS), School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, People’s Republic of China; Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute, New York Blood Center, New York, NY 10065, USA This article was originally published with errors, which have now been corrected in the online version. Please see Correction (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/ 22221751.2020.1737363) Emerging Microbes & Infections 2020, VOL. 9 https://doi.org/10.1080/22221751.2020.1723441