Korea's First New Human Coronavirus Found...the possibility of rodent origin
Feb 27, 2025
|
A research team led by Song Jin-won, a professor of microbiology at Korea University's School of Medicine (Dr. Park Kyung-min, Department of Pediatrics Shin Min-soo and Shim Jung-ok, and Professor Kim Won-geun of Hallim University Medical School) said they analyzed samples of infants hospitalized with pneumonia symptoms at Korea University's Ansan Hospital in 2022 and confirmed a new human coronavirus that has not been reported before.
Professor Song Jin-won of the University of Korea explained, "This virus is genetically different from the existing human coronavirus (229E, NL63, OC43, HKU1) and is likely to have originated in rodents."
The infected infant was admitted to Korea University Ansan Hospital with acute otitis media and liver dysfunction along with respiratory symptoms such as fever, cough, phlegm, and runny nose. Pneumonia was accompanied, and liver function level (AST/ALT) was abnormally high at 462/350 IU/L. Afterwards, he was discharged after 8 days due to improved liver function and respiratory symptoms through conservative treatment.
The research team investigated 880 domestic wild dorsal rat rats collected from 2018 to 2022 for virus infection to determine the cause of the virus. As a result, the novel alpha coronavirus (α-CoV) was detected in 16 (1.8%) collected in Gangwon-do and Jeju-do, showing a high genetic similarity of 93.0 to 96.8% to the virus found in infants. Although rodents are likely natural hosts of the virus, the route of infection is unclear, it said. In addition, COVID-19 mainly caused pneumonia, but this virus was accompanied by liver dysfunction as well as pneumonia. The possibility of human-to-human transmission requires further study.
In particular, the new virus has been shown to be more closely related to the rodent-derived alpha coronavirus (AcCoV-JC34) found in China and South Korea than to the existing human coronavirus.
Professor Song Jin-won of Korea University's School of Microbiology said, "It is highly likely that this virus is a new form of virus that has passed from animals to humans. As the emergence of a new virus can pose a serious threat to public health, we need to closely analyze the infection route and pathogenicity to come up with countermeasures."," he stressed.
Meanwhile, the results of this study were published in the world's most prestigious journal of 'Emerging Microbes & Infection' under the title of 'Nobel human coronavirus in an infant patient suffering from pneumonia in Korea (Republic of Korea)' in February 2025.
|
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
