Research progress on the charecteristics of coronavirus and its pathogenesis to human / 中华临床感染病杂志

ABSTRACT

Coronaviruses widely exist in the nature.The domestic animals, poultry, rodents, and wild mammals, especially bats are the natural reservoir hosts of various coronaviruses , which spread infectious agents causing epidemics of animal or human diseases .Six coronaviruses have been found to cause disease in human, including SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV which cause high mortality rates.Due to the extensive hosts and the genomic characteristics , coronavirus is prone to gene recombination and mutation in the course of evolution, showing genetic diversity.New subtypes and new coronaviruses continue to emerge during this process, making it possible for cross-species infections, which bring great difficulties in the prevention and treatment of the disease.The article reviews and discusses the morphological structure , classification, genome and cross-species infection, pathogenicity of coronavirus as well as the prevention and control measures of its infection.