SARS and the new coronavirus target the same cellular lock to infect cells
The number of 2019 novel coronavirus cases — more than 17,000 as of February 3 — has already eclipsed the roughly 8,000 cases reported for the 2003 SARS coronavirus outbreak. But scientists are still finding similarities between the two viruses. Analyses of living cells show that the new virus, called 2019-nCoV, uses the same cellular lock to get into cells as SARS, researchers report February 3 in Nature. Previous reports that the new virus relies on that lock — known as angiotensin-converting enzyme II, or ACE2 — to enter and infect cells were based on comparisons between the genetic blueprints of 2019-nCoV and the virus responsible for SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. The new finding, however, provides direct evidence from living cells that 2019-nCoV attaches to ACE2 to gain access, essentially picking the cellular lock with a spiky protein on the virus’s surface. Zheng-Li Shi, a virologist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, and her colleagues analyzed samples of...