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. 2020 Feb 20;382(8):727-733.
doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2001017. Epub 2020 Jan 24.

A Novel Coronavirus from Patients with Pneumonia in China, 2019

Na Zhu  1 , Dingyu Zhang  1 , Wenling Wang  1 , Xingwang Li  1 , Bo Yang  1 , Jingdong Song  1 , Xiang Zhao  1 , Baoying Huang  1 , Weifeng Shi  1 , Roujian Lu  1 , Peihua Niu  1 , Faxian Zhan  1 , Xuejun Ma  1 , Dayan Wang  1 , Wenbo Xu  1 , Guizhen Wu  1 , George F Gao  1 , Wenjie Tan  1 ; China Novel Coronavirus Investigating and Research Team
Affiliations

A Novel Coronavirus from Patients with Pneumonia in China, 2019

Na Zhu et al. N Engl J Med. .

Abstract

In December 2019, a cluster of patients with pneumonia of unknown cause was linked to a seafood wholesale market in Wuhan, China. A previously unknown betacoronavirus was discovered through the use of unbiased sequencing in samples from patients with pneumonia. Human airway epithelial cells were used to isolate a novel coronavirus, named 2019-nCoV, which formed a clade within the subgenus sarbecovirus, Orthocoronavirinae subfamily. Different from both MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV, 2019-nCoV is the seventh member of the family of coronaviruses that infect humans. Enhanced surveillance and further investigation are ongoing. (Funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China and the National Major Project for Control and Prevention of Infectious Disease in China.).

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Chest Radiographs.
Shown are chest radiographs from Patient 2 on days 8 and 11 after the onset of illness. The trachea was intubated and mechanical ventilation instituted in the period between the acquisition of the two images. Bilateral fluffy opacities are present in both images but are increased in density, profusion, and confluence in the second image; these changes are most marked in the lower lung fields. Changes consistent with the accumulation of pleural liquid are also visible in the second image.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Cytopathic Effects in Human Airway Epithelial Cell Cultures after Inoculation with 2019-nCoV.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Visualization of 2019-nCoV with Transmission Electron Microscopy.
Negative-stained 2019-nCoV particles are shown in Panel A, and 2019-nCoV particles in the human airway epithelial cell ultrathin sections are shown in Panel B. Arrowheads indicate extracellular virus particles, arrows indicate inclusion bodies formed by virus components, and triangles indicate cilia.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Schematic of 2019-nCoV and Phylogenetic Analysis of 2019-nCoV and Other Betacoronavirus Genomes.
Shown are a schematic of 2019-nCoV (Panel A) and full-length phylogenetic analysis of 2019-nCoV and other betacoronavirus genomes in the Orthocoronavirinae subfamily (Panel B).
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