Can Coronaviruses Steal Genes from the Host as Evidenced in Western European Hedgehogs by EriCoV Genetic Characterization?

Due to their need for living cells, viruses have developed adaptive evolutionary strategies to survive and perpetuate in reservoir hosts that play a crucial role in the ecology of emerging pathogens. Pathogenic and potentially pandemic betacoronaviruses arose in humans in 2002 (SARS-CoV, disappeared in July 2003), 2012 (MERS-CoV, still circulating in Middle East areas), and 2019 (SARS-CoV-2, causing the current global pandemic). As universally recognized, bats host ancestors of the above-mentioned zoonotic viruses. However, hedgehogs have been recently identified in Europe and Asia as possible reservoirs of MERS-CoV-like strains classified as Erinaceus coronavirus (EriCoV). To elucidate the evolution and genetics of EriCoVs, NGS (next generation sequencing) and Sanger sequencing were used to examine fecal samples collected in Northern Italy in 2018/2019 from 12 hedgehogs previously found EriCoV-positive by RT-PCR. By sequence analysis, eight complete EriCoV genomes, obtained by NGS, showed a high phylogenetic correlation with EriCoV strains previously reported in Eurasia. Interestingly, eight viral strains presented an additional ORF encoding for the CD200 ortholog located between the genes encoding for the Spike and the ORF3a proteins. The CD200 ortholog sequences were closely similar to the host CD200 protein but varying among EriCoVs. The result, confirmed by Sanger sequencing, demonstrates for the first time that CoVs can acquire host genes potentially involved in the immune-modulatory cascade and possibly enabling the virus to escape the host defence.

Eco-Virological Preliminary Study of Potentially Emerging Pathogens in Hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) Recovered at a Wildlife Treatment and Rehabilitation Center in Northern Italy.

The Western European Hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) is one of the four hedgehog species belonging to the genus Erinaceus. Among them, E. amurensis is extant in East Asia's areas only, whereas E. europaeus, E. roumanicus and E. concolor are mainly found in Europe. E. europaeus is endemically distributed from western to central and southern Europe, including Italy. Western European hedgehogs' ecological and feeding habits, along with their high population densities, notable synanthropic attitudes, frequent contacts with sympatric wild and domestic species, including humans, implicate the possible involvement of E. europaeus in the ecology of potentially emerging viruses, such as coronaviruses, influenza A and influenza D viruses, canine distemper virus, pestiviruses and Aujeszky's disease virus. We examined 24 E. europaeus individuals found injured in urban and rural areas of Northern Italy. Of the 24 fecal samples collected and tested for the above-mentioned pathogens by both PCR-based and virus isolation methods, 14 were found PCR-positive for betacoronaviruses belonging to lineage C and related to the known Erinaceus coronaviruses (EriCoVs), as determined by partial sequencing of the virus genome. Our findings suggest that hedgehogs could be considered natural reservoirs of CoVs, and also act as chronic shedding carriers of these potentially emerging RNA viruses.