- Researchers led by Shi Zhengli at the Wuhan Institute of Virology discovered a new coronavirus, HKU5-CoV-2, that can infect humans like SARS-CoV-2, according to a study published in the journal Cell.
- The new virus, HKU5-CoV-2, uses the ACE2 receptor, similar to SARS-CoV-2, and carries a high risk for animal-to-human transmission.
- Shi Zhengli’s research indicates that HKU5-CoV-2 could have better adaptation to human cells and is more dangerous than its predecessor.
- The findings fuel ongoing debates about the origins of COVID-19, with Shi Zhengli and other scientists claiming the virus emerged naturally, although no evidence for this natural origin has been provided.
The virus, HKU5-CoV-2, does not enter human cells as readily as SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, the scientists reported in the journal Cell. However, they found that the bat virus uses the same cell-surface protein, ACE2, as SARS-CoV-2 to help it enter human cells. In lab experiments, HKU5-CoV-2 infected human cells with high ACE2 levels in test tubes and in models of human intestines and airways. In further experiments, the researchers identified antibodies and antiviral drugs that are able to target the bat virus. 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 COVID-19 and SARS viruses compared with 2019. The study itself noted that the virus has significantly less binding affinity than SARS-CoV-2.