Cited by 448SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 ResearchAnimal Virus Infections StudiesViral Infections and Outbreaks Research

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus efficiently infects human primary T lymphocytes and activates the extrinsic and intrinsic apoptosis pathways

Open access
Chu, Hin, Zhou, Jie, Wong, Bosco Ho-Yin, Li, Cun, Chan, Jasper Fuk-Woo, Cheng, Zhong-Shan, Yang, Dong, Wang, Dong +11 more·2016·Journal of Infectious Diseases

Abstract

Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is associated with a mortality rate of >35%. We previously showed that MERS coronavirus (MERS-CoV) could infect human macrophages and dendritic cells and induce cytokine dysregulation. Here, we further investigated the interplay between human primary T cells and MERS-CoV in disease pathogenesis. Importantly, our results suggested that MERS-CoV efficiently infected T cells from the peripheral blood and from human lymphoid organs, including the spleen and the tonsil. We further demonstrated that MERS-CoV infection induced apoptosis in T cells, which involved the activation of both the extrinsic and intrinsic apoptosis pathways. Remarkably, immunostaining of spleen sections from MERS-CoV-infected common marmosets demonstrated the presence of viral nucleoprotein in their CD3(+) T cells. Overall, our results suggested that the unusual capacity of MERS-CoV to infect T cells and induce apoptosis might partly contribute to the high pathogenicity of the virus.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1093/infdis/jiv380

Cites

50 of 50 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Infection of endothelial cells through infected PBMC has been documented for members of several virus families, including bunya, herpes, filo, flavi, toga, and arena viruses.

    “Infection of EC through infected PBMC has been documented for members of several virus families, including bunya, herpes, filo, flavi, toga, and arena viruses (Charrel and de Lamballerie, 2010; Chu et al., 2016; Gowen and Hickerson, 2017; Kunz and de la Torre, 2017; Ma et al., 2013; Mackow and Gavrilovskaya, 2009).”

    From Equid Herpesvirus-1 Exploits the Extracellular Matrix of Mononuclear Cells to Ensure Transport to Target Cells (2020) · cites this paper as Chu et al., 2016

    The Results section, “MERS-CoV Differentially Infects Subsets of Human PBMCs” (page not supplied), documents infection of human PBMC subsets. It does not document endothelial-cell infection through infected PBMCs or address the virus families listed in the citing sentence; the virus studied is MERS-CoV. (LLM, conf=0.78)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

1 retracted

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Chu, H., Zhou, J., Wong, B. H.-Y., Li, C., Chan, J. F.-W., Cheng, Z.-S., Yang, D., Wang, D., Lee, A. C.-Y., Li, C., Yeung, M.-L., Cai, J.-P., Chan, I. H.-Y., Ho, W.-K., To, K. K.-W., Zheng, B.-J., Yao, Y., Qin, C., & Yuen, K.-Y.
Affiliations
  • University of Hong Kong (HK)
  • Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College (CN)
  • Zhejiang University (CN)
Corresponding author
Chu, Hin
Venue
Journal of Infectious Diseases
Published
2015-07-22
Volume
213
Issue
6
Pages
904-914
ISSN
  • 0022-1899 (ISSN-L)
  • 1537-6613
OpenAlex
W1947409115
Cited by
448
References
50
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 50 · 2021: 117 · 2020: 149 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 1
FWCI
11.68
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • The Journal of Infectious Diseases (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • The HKU Scholars Hub (University of Hong Kong) (submittedVersion)
  • HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (T11/707/15)
  • Providence Foundation Limited
  • University of Hong Kong Small Project Funding (201409176024)
  • Hong Kong Health and Medical Research Fund (14131392)
  • Hong Kong Research Grants Council (N_HKU728/14)
  • National Science and Technology Major Projects of Infectious Disease (2012ZX10004501-004)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Animal Science and Zoology › Animal Virus Infections Studies
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › Viral Infections and Outbreaks Research
Keywords
MERS-CoV, T cells, T cell infection, apoptosis, extrinsic apoptotic pathway, mitochondrial apoptosis, spleen, tonsil, marmoset, viral pathogenicity, lymphoid organs
MeSH terms
Animals, Antibodies, Viral, Callithrix, Cells, Cultured, Gene Expression Regulation, Humans, Spleen, T-Lymphocytes, Palatine Tonsil, Apoptosis, Dipeptidyl Peptidase 4, Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review