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Covid-like bat virus found at China’s Wuhan lab. What is HKU5-CoV-2? Does it infect humans?
Researchers at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology have identified a new coronavirus in bats that uses the same entry pathway into cells as the virus responsible for Covid-19. The virus has not been found in humans and was only detected in a laboratory. News of the discovery boosted the stock prices of some vaccine manufacturers on Friday.
Also Read: Covid-19-like bat virus discovered in Wuhan lab, poses risk of animal-to-human transmission
Scientists stated in the journal Cell, as cited by news ageny Reuters, that the virus, known as HKU5-CoV-2, does not enter human cells as easily as SARS-CoV-2 does and that the “risk of emergence in human populations should not be exaggerated”.
HKU5-CoV-2 shares similarities with Covid-19 as well as the virus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) as they all emerge from the HKU5 coronavirus.
Also Read: The unsettled debate about Covid origins
Researchers stated that like SARS-CoV-2, the new virus also has a feature known as the furin cleavage site that helps it to enter cells via the ACE2 receptor protein on cell surfaces.
In lab experiments, HKU5-CoV-2 infected human cells with high ACE2 levels in test tubes and in models of human intestines and airways.
Also Read: Covid-like virus in China: What is HMPV and what are its symptoms?
Though the virus has spread among bats, researchers are still unsure about the potential risk of animal-to-human transmission of the virus. Not every coronavirus can infect human beings, as coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that can cause diseases ranging from the common cold to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Coronavirus disease-2019 (Covid-19).
Researcher Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minesotta told Reuters that the reaction to the study on HKU5-CoV-2 was overblown.
Symptoms that are shared by the HKU5 category of coronavirus and MERS are fever, cough, fatigue, congestion, sneezing, chills, loss of appetite, shortness of breath, diarrhoea and vomiting.
While the virus has not yet been proven to infect humans, the Centre for Disease Control maintains that one should always stay up to date with immunizations, use precautions to prevent spread such as washing hands thoroughly, masks and testing for any other comorbid risks.
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Researchers at Wuhan lab discovered a new bat coronavirus, HKU5-CoV-2, which shares entry pathways with SARS-CoV-2 but poses limited risk to humans.
What is the new bat virus and how does it spread?
Are there any symptoms to the virus?
What to do to prevent the virus?
New Bat Coronavirus Capable Of Infecting Humans Discovered In China
A new bat coronavirus that carries the risk of animal-to-human transmission, similar to the one that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, has been discovered in China. According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the new virus called HKU5-CoV-2 was found by a team of virologists led by Shi Zhengli, the famed scientist known as “Batwoman” for her lifetime work in coronaviruses, especially at the Wuhan Institute, which has been at the centre of the theory suggesting COVID-19 came from a lab leak – something China has denied repeatedly.
The Chinese researchers found that the new virus has similarities to SARS CoV-2 – the virus which led to the Covid pandemic – because this too can infiltrate human cells called ACE2 the same way Covid did, the outlet reported.
HKU5-CoV-2 is a coronavirus belonging to the merbecovirus subgenus, which also includes the virus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). Scientists found that the new virus can bind to human ACE2, making it similar to SARS-CoV-2 and NL63 (a common cold virus).
During a lab test, the team discovered that HKU5-CoV-2 was able to infect human cell cultures in the mini-human organ models the scientists used.
“Bat merbecoviruses, which are phylogenetically related to MERS-CoV, pose a high risk of spillover to humans, either through direct transmission or facilitated by intermediate hosts,” the study said, as per Newsweek. However, it noted that the potential for the virus to spillover into humans “remains to be investigated”.
“Structural and functional analyses indicate that HKU5-CoV-2 has a better adaptation to human ACE2 than lineage 1 HKU5-CoV,” the Chinese research team wrote in the study.
“Authentic HKU5-CoV-2 infected human ACE2-expressing cell lines and human respiratory and enteric organoids. This study reveals a distinct lineage of HKU5-CoVs in bats that efficiently use human ACE2 and underscores their potential zoonotic risk,” they concluded.
It remains unknown whether this discovery will cause any disease in humans.
When asked about concerns raised by the report of another pandemic resulting from this new virus, Dr Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, called the reaction to the study “overblown.” He said there is a lot of immunity in the population to similar SARS viruses compared with 2019, which may reduce the pandemic risk.
Notably, the study itself has stated that the virus has significantly less binding affinity to human ACE2 than SARS-CoV-2, and other suboptimal factors for human adaptation suggest the “risk of emergence in human populations should not be exaggerated”.
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