Innate and Adaptive Immune Genes Associated with MERS-CoV Infection in Dromedaries.

The recent SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has refocused attention to the , only eight years after the emergence of another zoonotic , the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). While the wild source of SARS-CoV-2 may be disputed, for MERS-CoV, dromedaries are considered as source of zoonotic human infections. Testing 100 immune-response genes in 121 dromedaries from United Arab Emirates (UAE) for potential association with present MERS-CoV infection, we identified candidate genes with important functions in the adaptive, MHC-class I (-like) and II (-like), and innate immune response (), and in cilia coating the respiratory tract (). Some of these genes previously have been associated with viral replication in SARS-CoV-1/-2 in humans, others have an important role in the movement of bronchial cilia. These results suggest similar host genetic pathways associated with these , although further work is required to better understand the MERS-CoV disease dynamics in both dromedaries and humans.