Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 15, 2026

Infection of Primary Nasal Epithelial Cells Grown at an Air-Liquid Interface to Characterize Human Coronavirus-Host Interactions
Published on: September 22, 2023
Molecular epidemiology and characterization of human coronavirus in Thailand, 2012-2013
Rapeepun Soonnarong1, Ilada Thongpan2, Sunchai Payungporn1
1Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Background:
Coronavirus causes respiratory infections in humans. To determine the prevalence of human coronavirus (HCoV) infection among patients with influenza-like illness, 5833 clinical samples from nasopharyngeal swabs and aspirates collected between January 2012 and December 2013 were examined.
Results:
HCoV was found in 46 (0.79 %) samples. There were 19 (0.32 %) HCoV-HKU1, 19 (0.32 %) HCoV-NL63, 5 (0.09 %) HCoV-229E, and 3 (0.05 %) HCoV-OC43. None of the sample tested positive for MERS-CoV. The majority (54 %) of the HCoV-positive patients were between the ages of 0 and 5 years. HCoV was detected throughout the 2-year period and generally peaked from May to October, which coincided with the rainy season. Phylogenetic trees based on the alignment of the spike (S) gene sequences suggest an emergence of a new clade for HCoV-229E.
Conclusions:
The data in this study provide an insight into the prevalence of the recent circulating HCoVs in the region.
Related Concept Videos
Viral Mutations
Modern Molecular Taxonomy
Applications of Molecular Taxonomy

