Chinese scientists discover a new type of bat coronavirus that can be transmitted to humans
Kyiv • UNN
Chinese scientists have discovered a new coronavirus, HKU5, in bats that uses the ACE2 receptor, similar to COVID-19. The virus is capable of infecting human cells and can be transmitted through intermediate hosts.
A team of Chinese scientists has discovered a new coronavirus in bats that uses the same human receptor as the virus that causes COVID-19 and can be transmitted from animal to human. This discovery raises concerns about the possible risk of a new outbreak. This is reported by the South China Morning Post, UNN writes.
Details
The study was led by Shi Zhengli, a leading virologist known as the "bat" because of her extensive research on bat coronaviruses at the Guangzhou laboratory, in collaboration with researchers from the Guangzhou Academy of Sciences, Wuhan University, and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The latest discovery is a new type of coronavirus, HKU5, which was first discovered in a Japanese bat in Hong Kong.
The new virus belongs to the merbeckovirus subgenus, which also includes the virus that causes the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).
The virus is able to bind to the human angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE2), the same receptor used by the Sars-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 to infect cells.
"We report the discovery and isolation of a distinct lineage (lineage 2) of HKU5-CoV that can utilize not only bat ACE2 but also human ACE2 and various mammalian ACE2 orthologs [genes found in different species with a common origin]," the researchers wrote in an article published on Tuesday in the peer-reviewed journal Cell.
The researchers found that when the virus was isolated from bat samples, it could infect human cells, as well as artificially grown masses of cells or tissues resembling miniature respiratory or intestinal organs.
"Bat merboviruses... pose a high risk of transmission to humans either by direct transmission or through intermediate hosts," the researchers added.
HKU5-CoV-2 binds to ACE2 receptors not only in humans but also in many other species, each of which can act as intermediate hosts and transmit it to humans.
Merbovirus comprises four distinct species - the Mers coronavirus, two of which are found in bats and one in hedgehogs - and was added to the World Health Organization's list of emerging pathogens for pandemic preparedness last year.