Researchers in China have discovered a new bat coronavirus similar to the one that led to the deadly Covid-19 pandemic, a study said.
According to the South China Morning Post, the new virus is referred to as HKU5-CoV-2 and was unearthed by a team of researchers, led by Shi Zhengli, the virologist popular as the “batwoman” for her extensive research on coronaviruses.
While it carries the risk of animal-to-human transmission, the virus has not been identified in a living person, the study published in the journal Cell stated.
The study was carried out at the Guangzhou Laboratory by researchers belonging to Guangzhou Academy of Sciences, Wuhan University as well as the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Shi is known for her work at the Wuhan Institute which was earlier at the centre of the controversy regarding the origins of Covid-19. The new virus uses the same human receptor as SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus strain that caused Covid-19.
What is HKU5-CoV-2?
HKU5-CoV-2 belongs to the merbecovirus subgenus which also includes a virus which causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).
During their study, the researchers found that it can bind to human angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE2), closely associating it with SARS-CoV-2 and NL63.
The team did a lab test to confirm that it is capable of infecting human cells and artificially grown masses of cells or tissue resembling miniaturised organs.
“We report the discovery and isolation of a distinct lineage (lineage 2) of HKU5-CoV, which can utilise not only bat ACE2 but also human ACE2 and various mammalian ACE2 orthologs (– genes found in different species with a common origin),” read the study.
It added that bat merbecoviruses, phylogenetically related to MERS-CoV, post major spillover risk to humans both via direct transmission or facilitated by intermediate hosts.
As of now, its potential to spill over into humans is being ‘investigated’.
Moreover, they have suggested that HKU5-CoV-2 holds better adaptation to human ACE2 compared to lineage 1 HKU5-CoV, as indicated through the structural and functional analyses.
Another pandemic?
The study mentions that the new virus has less binding affinity to human ACE2 compared to SARS-CoV-2. Also, other suboptimal factors for human adaptation have suggested the “risk of emergence in human populations should not be exaggerated”.
Recently, a team of researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle along with Wuhan University said that they couldn’t detect “efficient” human binding in the HKU5 strain. CNBCTV18
