New coronavirus found as bat-borne bug challenges China lab leak idea
A new mystery coronavirus has been found in Brazil which challenges the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic stemmed from a leak from a Chinese lab
A new mystery coronavirus has been discovered (Stock)
Experts have discovered a new mystery coronavirus in a Brazilian bat. The new find challenges a theory that the COVID-19 pandemic was caused by a man-made virus which leaked from a Chinese lab.
The SARS-CoV-2 – known as COVID-19 – contains a furin cleavage site (FCS) on its surface spike proteins. This FCS is what led to the virus being so infectious during the 2020 global pandemic.
However the FCS has not been seen in other bat-derived Sars-related coronaviruses before. This has lead to theories the COVID-19 virus was man-made.
The rarity of the FCS helped contribute to a wider theory COVID-19 could have originated from a Chinese lab and was “leaked” onto the population by accident.
Markus Hoffmann, who co-discovered the key role of the furin cleavage site for Sars-CoV-2 infection, has pulled back the lid on the speculation around the viruses. The scientist said: “It is understandable why suspicion exists.”
The virus was found in a bat in Brazil (Stock)
Hoffmann added: “The outbreak started in a city, Wuhan, with a virology lab specialised in bat coronaviruses. Further, past research proposals discussed adding multibasic [composed of multiple amino acid residues] cleavage sites to bat viruses. Yet these factors may be circumstantial rather than evidence of engineering.”
A team of international researchers have now discovered a previously unknown coronavirus in a Parnell’s moustached bat. After sequencing the new virus’ genome they found it is a betacoronavirus, one of the main groups of coronavirus.
The group of coronaviruses includes both Sars-CoV-2 and Mers-CoV, which are both harmful to humans. The new strain belongs to its own subgenera and is distantly related to Sars-CoV-2 also known as COVID-19
Hoffman, who was not involved in the work, said: “While the current study does not provide direct proof or disproof of a natural origin of Sars-CoV-2 with respect to the multibasic cleavage site in the spike protein.
Experts don’t know if the virus can infect human’s yet
“It highlights that multibasic cleavage sites in spike proteins can be naturally found in diverse coronaviruses from multiple phylogenetic groups.”
He added: “For me, there is currently no compelling evidence that Sars-CoV-2 was engineered in a lab.”
It is currently unknown if the newly discovered COVID is a risk to humans. Hoffman has stated work needs to be done to find out if this newly discovered coronavirus has the ability to jump from bats to people.
The expert added: ”This includes experiments that determine the ability of the spike protein to bind to receptor molecules on human cell.”
“While a multitude of coronaviruses has been identified in bats over the past 25 years, only a minor fraction of them has a spike protein capable of binding to receptor molecules on human cells.”
