Presence of human cell receptor ace2 and tmprss2 in human lung cell produced by bat coronaviruses from east coast malaysia

An abstract of the research paper presented to the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, in partial requirement of the course DVT 55204 - Research Project. A recent human pandemic was brought on by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2. The genome of SARS-CoV-2 has revealed a tight link with bat SARS-like coronavirus strains from Asia, and these bats are thought to constitute the virus's reservoir. Human SARS-CoV-2 has identified human receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and human cellular serine protease TMPRSS2 for the viral S protein to bind and enter the host cells. Early this year, our group has isolated five SARS-CoV-2 like viruses (98-99% RdRp sequence identity with human SARS-CoV-2) from bats in East Coast Malaysia (Four from Sekayu, Terengganu and one from Gunung Reng, Kelantan) and the zoonotic potential of these viruses to human is still unknown. The goal of this study is to examine the zoonotic potential of these five SARS-CoV- 2 like coronaviruses that were isolated from bats in Terengganu and Kelantan, Malaysia. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to determine whether the viruses could cause pathogenicity in humans. The viruses have shown able to use the ACE2 human receptors but did not use the serine protease TMPRSS2 for the binding and enter the host cell. This indicates that the SARS- CoV- 2 like viruses isolated from bats in East Coast, Malaysia might possess some degree ofzoonotic potential, as it can enter the human lung cell A549 through the binding to ACE2 receptor but without the help of TMPRSS2 as by human SARS-CoV-2. So, these viruses may have a zoonotic potential to human.
Keywords: SARS-CoV-2-like coronaviruses, ACE2 receptors, TMPRSS2 serine protease, Human Lung Cell, Zoonotic