肺炎新冠病毒学名叫SARS-COV-2
1月23日左右二篇来自中国科学家们在线预印版论文令人无疑议地证明了此次最早于武汉暴发的肺炎病毒是一种与己知的SARS 病毒很相近的冠状病毒。当时合理地暂命名为novel coronavirus 2019 ( 简称nCOV-2019)。国际病毒分类委员冠状病毒工作组(ICTV-CSG)于2月11日在Nature Microbiology杂志上发表了一份详细的声明(consensus statement)正式将2019-nCoV命名为SARS-COV-2。看得出由于关于这次肺炎新冠病毒的一些強烈爭论，这个命名委员会对这次命名是十分慎重的。这篇文章长达9页。仔细读读对病毒命名这一学问大体学到了几分，写个学习笔记和网友们分享一下。
世卫组织(WHO)拥有命名传染病的权力，国际病毒分类委员会(ICTV-CSG) 拥有命名病毒的权力。国际病毒分类委员会明确指出病毒的命名应当从基于疾病转为不依赖于表象的(phenotype-free)更为客观有效的指标. 这一思路的主要原因是己知冠状病毒及其中的Beta-coronavirus 有许多许多变异株，这些病毒株的自然宿主和致病性都不一定清楚，常常这些病毒株对其自然宿主并无致病性。所以病毒株的命名不是必须和疾病直接关联挂钩的。只有很少一部分采集合离到的病毒株经过实验检测，而基于计算机技术的基因组对比分析及推测病毒特性适用于所有病毒。经过进一步分析阐述国际病毒分类委明确提出冠状病毒分类应当基于基因组序列。
生物分类法(Taxonomy) 是早己建立好的系统(德国造)。该文指出对冠状病毒的分类体系尽管细节不同其实与人类进化分类是相似的。 由粗到细, 界 (Kingdom)/ 门 (Phylum)/ 纲 (Class)/ 目(Order)/ 科(Family)/ 属 (Genus)/ 种 (Species)/ 个体 (Individuum)。就人类而言，
目: Primate,
科： Hominids
属：Homo
种：Homo sapiens
于3万多年前消失于欧州大陆的其貌不扬的尼安德人Neanderthal 属于Homo neanderthalensis 种。不管你乐意不乐意几年前科学研究发现非洲大陆以外的人都带有∼1-3%的尼安德人基因。推测这部分基因使第二次走出非洲的早期人类获得了适应新环境的免疫力。
言归正传。作者在图2中作了冠状病毒基因组系统进化树分析(Phylogeny). 指出相对于所有其它冠状病毒种， 2019-nCoV与SARS及数目很多的蝙蝠类SARS病毒最为相近同时有一定特殊差异。最为接近的是云南蝙蝠类SARS病毒RaTG13 (96%核酸序列相同性), 浙江舟山蝙蝠类SARS病毒ZC45和ZXC21株。2019-nCoV属于己知的SARS种。而 冠状病毒SARS种已有几百名成员，考虑到每个成员都姓SARS (非致人疾病的叫SARS-related ( 简称SARSr) 或SARS-like(简称SL-)) ,所以有些别无选择，就叫(human) SARS-CoV-2吧。 对于具体每个分离纯化的病毒株，该委员会指出标准命名方法为:
SARS-CoV-2/ 宿主/地点/分离株编号/日期。所以具体一武汉病毒株全名如下：
SARS-CoV-2/human/Wuhan/X1/2019_XYZ12345。
除了上面谈到的用病毒基因组系统进化树(Phylogeny)分析确定2019-nCoV与SARS的远近关系，国际病毒分类委员冠状病毒工作组还用了一种专业技术性很强的分析方法1-1比对分类划界法(Pairwise Distance Demarcation (PDD) of species in the family Coronaviridae) 从而得到冠状病毒大家庭中每个种1)种内相似/变异度，
关于SARS-CoV-2这个命名，科学杂志在2月13日有篇简讯 -"Chinese virologists raise concerns about virus name”
"That name can cause panic to people, and may cause gross economic loss to the affected countries when the virus is circulating,” says Guo Deyin, a virologist at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou.
On 9 February, virologists in China suggested in a paper in Virologica Sinica that the latest virus be called Transmissible Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or TARS-CoV. Sun Caijun, an infectious-disease researcher also at Sun Yat-sen University, says that he would have preferred the virus be named Clustered Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (CARS-CoV) or Rapid Spread Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (RARS-CoV), given the virus's quick spread.”
TARS-CoV, CARS-CoV or RARS-CoV？要搞民间起名,没人能及文学城名博凡人先生。早在1月就起了个名称，叫WuRS (Wuhan Respiratory Syndrome),见博文"武汉肺炎的病理" 。
顶尖医学期刊柳叶刀在3月21日一期发表了二篇观点对立的评论。来自复旦大学的Shibo Jiang 等认为“A distinct name is needed for the new coronavirus”. 另一方面来自美国多家研究机构的海外华人专家一起发声 "SARS-CoV-
Yuntao Wu, Wenzhe Ho, Yaowei Huang, Dong-Yan Jin, Shiyue Li, Shan-Lu Liu, Xuefeng Liu, Jianming Qiu, Yongming Sang, Qiuhong Wang, Kwok-Yung Yuen,
Zhi-Ming Zheng
>National Center for Biodefense and Infectious Diseases, School of Systems Biology, George Mason University, Manassas, VA 20110, USA (YW);
>Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine and Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology, Temple University Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA (WH);
>Institute of Preventive Veterinary Medicine, Key Laboratory of Animal Virology of Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China (YH);
>School of Biomedical Sciences (D-YJ) and Department of Microbiology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine (K-YY),
>The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China; Department of Epidemiology, Wuhan University School of Health Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei, China (SL);
>Infectious Diseases Institute, Center for Retrovirus Research, Departments of Veterinary Biosciences, Microbial Infection and Immunity, and Microbiology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA (S-LL);
>Food Animal Health Research Program, Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine, The Ohio State University, Wooster, OH, USA (QW);
>Department of Pathology, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA (XL);
>Department of Microbiology, Molecular Genetics and Immunology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, USA (JQ);
>Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, College of Agriculture, Human and Natural Sciences, Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN, USA (YS);
>Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Frederick, MD 21702, USA (Z-MZ)
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国际病毒分类委员会(ICTV-CSG)在文中表达了对世卫组织将这次流行病命名为COVID-19的不同看法。“The WHO recently introduced a rather unspecific name (coronavirus disease 19, also known as COVID-19”.
参考文献:
Gorbalenya, A.E., Baker, S.C., Baric, R.S. et al. The species Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus: classifying 2019-nCoV and naming it SARS-CoV-2. Nat Microbiol 5, 536–544 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-020-0695-z
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/bit-chaotic-christening-new-coronavirus-and-its-disease-name-create-confusion
www.thelancet.com Vol395, 949, March 21, 2020. “SARS-CoV-2 is an appropriate name for the new coronavirus” https://doi.org/10.1016/ S0140-6736(20)30557-2
Fanreninus_文学城博客： 武汉肺炎的病理 https://blog.wenxuecity.com/myblog/73963/202001/25693.html
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