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. 2023 Jun 26;12(7):876.
doi: 10.3390/pathogens12070876.

Detection of Coronaviruses in Bats in Lebanon during 2020

Ahmed Kandeil  1   2   3 , Mounir Abi-Said  4 , Rebecca Badra  3 , Rabeh El-Shesheny  2   3 , Ahmed A Al-Karmalawy  5 , Radwan Alnajjar  6   7 , Zumama Khalid  8 , Mina Nabil Kamel  2 , Walid Abi Habib  9 , Jad Abdallah  9 , Vijaykrishna Dhanasekaran  10   11 , Richard Webby  1 , Ghazi Kayali  3
Affiliations

Detection of Coronaviruses in Bats in Lebanon during 2020

Ahmed Kandeil et al. Pathogens. .

Abstract

Bats are considered the main reservoir of coronaviruses (CoVs), and research evidence suggests the essential role of bats in the emergence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronaviruses (SARS-CoV) and SARS-CoV-2. SARS-CoV-like viruses have been recently detected in bats in different countries. In 2020, we conducted surveillance for CoVs among six different bat species in Lebanon. Of 622 swab specimens taken, 77 tested positive. Alpha- and Beta- CoVs were identified in samples collected from different species. Our results show that SARS-like coronaviruses circulate in bats in this region, and we provide new data on their genetic diversity. The interaction between the spike of the detected SARS-CoV-like viruses and the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2) receptor could be crucial in understanding the origin of the epidemic. The 3D protein structure analysis revealed that the receptor-binding domains of the SARS-like virus identified in Lebanon bind to the hACE2 protein more efficiently than to the spike of the SARS-CoV-2 strain. The spike of the detected SARS-CoV-like viruses does not contain the recognition site of furin at the cleavage site. Thus, our study highlights the variety of bat coronaviruses in Lebanon and suggests the zoonotic potential for other SARS-CoV-like viruses.

Keywords: Lebanon; SARS-CoV-2; bat; coronaviruses; reservoir; zoonoses.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Map of Lebanon showing sample collection sites in gray and the number of samples collected in each site. The distribution of greater horseshoe bats across Eurasia is shown in red (https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12665198, accessed on 20 May 2023).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Evolutionary relationships of bat CoVs in Lebanon. Maximum likelihood phylogeny of the (a) RdRp gene of CoVs generated and (b) spike protein.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Amino acid alignment of spike protein sequences of the currently detected SARS CoV-like viruses in Lebanon and closely characterized viruses (BM48-31/BGR/2008, and bat coronavirus Khosta-1) and SARS-CoV-2.
Figure 4
Figure 4
(a) Overlay of the 3D structure of the wild type (yellow) and novel type (green); missing residues are highlighted in red. (b) (Up) Overlay of the 3D structure of whole spike protein, wild (yellow) and novel (green); (down) surface representation of the novel spike protein.
Figure 5
Figure 5
The RMSD for Cα atoms (Å) with respect to the initial structure as a function of simulation time (ns) for the complexes. Blue SARS-CoV2 and orange are the newly detected viruses in Lebanon.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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