A new coronavirus with the potential to spread among people has been discovered by Chinese researchers.
A team led by virologist Shi Zhengli, known as 'Batwoman' for her work on coronaviruses, detected the new virus, HKU5-COV-2, in bats in China.
HKU5-COV-2 is similar to SARS-COV-2, the virus that has fueled the global COVID-19 Pandemie, and has a higher potential than other coronaviruses to infect people because it infiltrates human cells in the same way as COVID.
Although there are hundreds of coronaviruses in the wild, only a few people can infect, including SARS, SARS-COV-2 and MERS, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).
The new HKU5-COV-2 is a Coronavirus of the Merbecovirus group and is closely related to MERS.
In experiments that were carried out in the lab, scientists analyzed HKU5-COV-2 and discovered that it was able to infect human cell cultures in model organs and tissues of breathing and intestinal systems.
The scientists published their latest research in the magazine cell and said, “Bat Merbecoviruses, who are phylogenetically related to MERS-COV, are a high risk of landing to people, either by direct transfer or facilitated by intermediate hosts.”
The research team was led by virologist Shi Zhengli, known as 'Batwoman' for her work on coronaviruses
Mers is a contagious respiratory disease spread from animals to people and from person to person. It causes fever, cough, shortness of breath, diarrhea and vomiting and can be fatal in severe cases.
Only two patients in the US once tested positively for MERS – both in May 2014 – and at least was linked to travel from the middle -east. There is no vaccine against the virus.
Merbecoviruses are detected in mink and pangolines – the animal believed the intermediary for Covid between bats and people.
This, the scientists wrote, “” suggests frequent transfer of these viruses between bats and other animal species. “
They added: 'This study reveals a clear origin of HKU5-COVs in bats that use efficiently humanly [cells] And emphasizes their potential zoomotic risk. '
HKU5-COV viruses were detected for the first time in bats in 2006, but the new data suggests that HKU5-COV-2 has a 'higher potential for interspecies infection' than others.
However, the potential for HKU5-COV-2 to spill about the people must be investigated. '
The research was conducted by the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The WIV is located in the middle of the Lab leking theory, which claims that Covid-19 was manufactured in a Chinese lab and accidentally leaked to the public.
In the latest study, it is assumed that a zoosotic overflow is responsible for the COVID-19 Pandemie, because bats have the highest share of coronaviruses and are considered reservoirs for them.
Bats have the highest share of coronaviruses and are considered reservoirs for them
But although Sars and Mers have documented evidence of transfer between animals to people, the 'intermediary hosts for SARS-COV-2 remain unclear'.
A study that claims to support the COVID-19 Zönotic theory has been published from 2023 In the journal Nature and led by virus expert Ralph Baric of the University of North Carolina.
It thought that the tribe of Coronavirus was hunted in Pangolines, endangered animals that are sometimes consumed by people, was almost identical to the COVID-19 virus caused the pandemic.
This has led to some scientists the first cases of COVID-19 theoretized, who probably jumped from the animals to immunocomromous people.
This gave the new virus sufficient opportunity to mutate and replicate until it achieved its entire pandemic potential.
Another camp of scientists, however, it says that the pandemic was fueled by a Labelk. This theory, subscribed by some American federal agencies, states COVID-19 is made in a laboratory and accidentally escaped the pandemic.
In a research proposal from 2018, which was ultimately refused the financing and did not take place, scientists saw a new virus with four characteristics that correspond to SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes Covid
One study that claims to support this theory was conducted in 2024 by researchers from Australia and Arizona.
They used a tool for risk analysis -which they described as the most extensive so far -to determine the opportunities that the SARS -COV -2 -virus was of 'unnatural' or 'natural' origin.
The team compared the characteristics of the virus and the pandemic with 11 criteria that analyzed things as the rarity of a virus, the timing of a pandemic, the infected population, the spread of a virus and the unexpected symptoms of a virus.
Based on the nature of COVID, researchers have assigned a score to each category – less than 50 percent meant that the pandemic would be classified as a natural outbreak, but 50 or more percent would mean that the pandemic was an unnatural outbreak.
Covid received a score of 68 percent.
