Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Detecting feline coronavirus mutations in cats
By Sangl, Laura et al.·Published in Journal of feline medicine and surgery·2019·1 Clinic of Small Animal Medicine, Germany·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Detection of feline coronavirus mutations in paraffin-embedded tissues in cats with feline infectious peritonitis and controls.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A group of 64 cats was studied to understand the link between certain mutations in the feline coronavirus (FCoV) and feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), a serious disease in cats. Out of 34 cats diagnosed with FIP, 24 tested positive for the more harmful version of the virus, which showed a specific mutation (M1058L) in its spike protein. The study found that this mutation is likely associated with FIP, while control cats without the disease did not show this mutation. The researchers used advanced testing methods to identify these differences, which could help in diagnosing FIP in affected cats.
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Abstract
OBJECTIVES: The amino acid substitutions M1058L and S1060A in the spike protein of feline coronavirus (FCoV) have been postulated to be responsible for the development of the pathogenic feline infectious peritonitis virus (FIPV), which causes feline infectious peritonitis (FIP). The aim of the following study was to investigate the presence of mutated virus in tissue samples of cats with and without FIP. METHODS: The study population consisted of 64 cats, 34 of which were diagnosed with FIP and 30 control cats. All cases underwent autopsy, histopathology and immunohistochemistry (IHC) for FCoV. Furthermore, a genotype-discriminating quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-qPCR) was performed on shavings of paraffin-embedded tissues to discriminate between cats with FIP and controls, and the sensitivity and specificity of this discriminating RT-qPCR were calculated using 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: Specificity of genotype-discriminating RT-qPCR was 100.0% (95% CI 88.4-100.0), and sensitivity was 70.6% (95% CI 52.5-84.9). In cats with FIP, 24/34 tested positive for FIPV. In samples of three control cats and in seven cats with FIP, FCoV was found, but genotyping was not possible owing to low FCoV RNA concentrations. Out of the positive samples, 23 showed the amino acid substitution M1058L in the spike protein and none the substitution S1060A. One sample in a cat with FIP revealed a mixed population of non-mutated FCoV and FIPV (mixed genotype). For one sample genotyping was not possible despite high viral load, and two samples were negative for FCoV. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: As none of the control animals showed FCoV amino acid substitutions previously demonstrated in cats with FIP, it can be presumed that the substitution M1058L correlates with the presence of FIP. FCoV was detected in low concentration in tissues of control animals, confirming the ability of FCoV to spread systemically. The fact that no negative controls were included in the IHC protocol could potentially lead to an underestimation of the sensitivity of the RT-qPCR.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29542369/