canping-huang-phd-novel-virus-discovery-in-bat-isn-translation

Chapter Six: Technology Used to Identify New Viruses
Last century, traditional virology made significant contributions to the discovery and
identification of pathogens. For example, tissue/cell culture, electronic microscopy,
serology, and immunology are the foundations of these methods. Along with the
development of new technology, molecular biology methods such as PCR, subtractive
hybridization techniques and microarray play important roles in the practice of clinical
virology studies. New metagenomic methods can analyze genomes directly from clinical
samples, which eliminates the need for tissue culture and gene cloning. Also, there is no
need for background knowledge of the pathogen. Therefore, the methods are applicable to
pathogen identification. New next-generation sequencing (NGS) methods greatly increase
the speed and effectiveness of sequence analysis, which advanced the usage of
metagenomics in clinical virus identification. The development of new technology has sped
up the identification of pathogens and plays a critical role in disease control.
Section One: Traditional Methods and Technology for Virus Discovery
In 1907, Anatomist Ross Harrison invented cell culture methods. In 1909, Karl Landsteiner
and Erwin Popper successfully propagated poliovirus using these methods [191] . In the
early stages of virology, there weren’t many effective ways to identify and examine viruses.
Many viruses were detected by methods of cell culture propagation. However, virus
propagation in cell culture still is the gold standard for virus discovery, as it has been for
over a century [192] .
In virus discovery research, cell and tissue culture are the only methods available to get live
virus. Virus culturing is useful in the study of viruses’ morphology and biology, including
growth kinetics, specificity for cells and tissues, receptors, serology characteristics, hosts,
pathogenesis, animal models and so forth. These studies are helpful in the study of disease
tracing and causation. Meanwhile, successful virus propagation impacts diagnosis and
vaccine development [193] .
There are many advantages of virus culturing, yet it is still somewhat limited. The study of
human hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an example [194] . The nucleic acid of HCV was first found in
blood samples in 1898. However, it took more than 10 years to successfully culture the
virus [193] .
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A partial translation into English of the PhD thesis: “Novel Virus Discovery in Bat and the Exploration of
Receptor of Bat Coronavirus HKU9” by Canping Huang, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention,
2016. Translation completed for Independent Science News in March 2021.