Functional cell receptors for human coronavirus / 中华检验医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Viruses infect host cells by binding to receptors on their surfaces of cells. Receptor is an important factor affecting host range and interspecific transmission. In December 2019, an outbreak of unexplained pneumonia occurred in Wuhan, Hubei province. The pathogen was a new coronavirus, named 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) by WHO. Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) was found to be the receptor of 2019-nCoV. This review provides a brief overview of human coronavirus receptors and their applications, with a view to providing references for the tracing, cross-species transmission, epidemiological analysis and antiviral and vaccine studies of 2019-nCoV.