Department of Viroscience, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regents Park, London, United Kingdom.
Sci Rep. 2017 Apr 26;7(1):1193. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-01290-6.
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) has been shown to infect both humans and dromedary camels using dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP4) as its receptor. The distribution of DPP4 in the respiratory tract tissues of humans and camels reflects MERS-CoV tropism. Apart from dromedary camels, insectivorous bats are suggested as another natural reservoir for MERS-like-CoVs. In order to gain insight on the tropism of these viruses in bats, we studied the DPP4 distribution in the respiratory and extra-respiratory tissues of two frugivorous bat species (Epomophorus gambianus and Rousettus aegyptiacus) and two insectivorous bat species (Pipistrellus pipistrellus and Eptesicus serotinus). In the frugivorous bats, DPP4 was present in epithelial cells of both the respiratory and the intestinal tract, similar to what has been reported for camels and humans. In the insectivorous bats, however, DPP4 expression in epithelial cells of the respiratory tract was almost absent. The preferential expression of DPP4 in the intestinal tract of insectivorous bats, suggests that transmission of MERS-like-CoVs mainly occurs via the fecal-oral route. Our results highlight differences in the distribution of DPP4 expression among MERS-CoV susceptible species, which might influence variability in virus tropism, pathogenesis and transmission route.
中东呼吸综合征冠状病毒（MERS-CoV）已被证明可通过二肽基肽酶 4（DPP4）作为其受体感染人类和单峰驼。DPP4 在人类和骆驼呼吸道组织中的分布反映了 MERS-CoV 的嗜性。除了单峰驼，食虫蝙蝠被认为是 MERS 样冠状病毒的另一个天然宿主。为了深入了解这些病毒在蝙蝠中的嗜性，我们研究了两种食果蝙蝠（Epomophorus gambianus 和 Rousettus aegyptiacus）和两种食虫蝙蝠（Pipistrellus pipistrellus 和 Eptesicus serotinus）的呼吸道和非呼吸道组织中 DPP4 的分布。在食果蝙蝠中，DPP4 存在于呼吸道和肠道的上皮细胞中，与骆驼和人类的报道相似。然而，在食虫蝙蝠中，呼吸道上皮细胞中 DPP4 的表达几乎不存在。食虫蝙蝠中 DPP4 在肠道中的优先表达表明，MERS 样冠状病毒的主要传播途径是粪-口途径。我们的研究结果强调了 MERS-CoV 易感物种中 DPP4 表达分布的差异，这可能影响病毒嗜性、发病机制和传播途径的变异性。
