total of 1,732 cases were confirmed; 381 case-patients were healthcare workers and medical students. Clinical features, treatment protocols, and outcomes have been previously reported by various local experts (1–3). The etiologic agent is a SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) (1). However, no asymptomatic case of SARS-CoV infection has been previously reported (4). In addition, in Hong Kong,...

BACKGROUND Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a novel infectious disease. No information is currently available on host-specific immunity against the SARS coronavirus (CoV), and detailed characteristics of the epidemiology of SARS CoV infection have not been identified. METHODS ELISA was used to detect antibody to SARS CoV. Reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction was used to ...

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is an acute infectious disease of the respiratory system. Although a novel coronavirus has been identified as the causative agent of SARS, the pathogenic mechanisms of SARS are not understood. In this study, sera were collected from healthy donors, patients with SARS, patients with severe SARS, and patients with SARS in convalescence. The serum concentra...

BACKGROUND Despite the use of a series of preventive measures, a high incidence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was observed among health care workers (HCWs) during the SARS epidemic. This study aimed to determine which preventive measures may have been effective in protecting HCWs from infection, and which were not effective. METHODS A retrospective study was performed among 758 ...

One of the hallmark findings in patients suffering from SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) is lymphopenia, which is the result of massive lymphocyte death. SARS-CoV (SARS coronavirus), a novel coronavirus that has been etiologically associated with SARS cases, is homologous with MHV (murine hepatitis coronavirus), and MHV small envelope E protein is capable of inducing apoptosis. We hypot...

Little is known about the innate immune response to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus (CoV) infection. Mannose-binding lectin (MBL), a key molecule in innate immunity, functions as an ante-antibody before the specific antibody response. Here, we describe a case-control study that included 569 patients with SARS and 1188 control subjects and used in vitro assays to investigate...

BACKGROUND The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002 and 2003 affected global health and caused major economic disruption. Adequate animal models are required to study the underlying pathogenesis of SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) infection and to develop effective vaccines and therapeutics. We report the first findings of measurable clinical disease in nonhuman p...

AIMS To develop a quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (Q-RT-PCR) for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) detection and explore the potential of using glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) mRNA as an internal control to exclude false negative results. METHODS SARS-CoV and GAPDH mRNA were both measured in 26 specimens from 16 patients wit...

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) nsp1 protein has unique biological functions that have not been described in the viral proteins of any RNA viruses; expressed SARS-CoV nsp1 protein has been found to suppress host gene expression by promoting host mRNA degradation and inhibiting translation. We generated an nsp1 mutant (nsp1-mt) that neither promoted host mRNA degrada...

OBJECTIVE In order to investigate the clinical and epidemiological rules of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), rates and levels SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) IgG antibodies of the patients and community populations from several areas were detected. METHODS Indirect immunofluorescent assay (IFA) and double-antigen sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were used to detect the ...