SARS-CoV-2 Evolution in Humans Enables Its Transmission to Nonhuman Primates.

ABSTRACT: Zoonotic viruses frequently cross-species barriers, but the molecular processes enabling reverse zoonosis remain poorly defined. The COVID-19 pandemic provided an unprecedented opportunity to track SARS-CoV-2 evolution in humans and its capacity to infect nonhuman primates. Our earlier analyses of primate ACE2 sequences identified key substitutions that confer resistance to wild-type (WT) SARS-CoV-2 and are conserved in New World monkeys (NWMs), establishing a strong species barrier. Using pseudovirus assays with HeLa cells expressing New World monkey ACE2 (nwmACE2), we show that while WT and Alpha strains could not infect, later variants such as Delta, Omicron, and especially the XBB lineage (XBB.1.5, EG.5.1) acquired robust infectivity toward nwmACE2. More recent lineages (JN.1, LB.1, KP

SUBMITTER: Chiu YT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12646073 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature