Scientists Find a New Coronavirus in Bats That Is Resistant to Current Vaccines

It’s the news that public health experts expect but dread: virus-hunting researchers have discovered a new coronavirus in bats that could spell trouble for the human population. The virus can infect human cells and is already able to skirt the immune protection from COVID-19 vaccines. Reporting in the journal PLoS Pathogens, scientists led by Michael Letko, assistant professor in the Paul Allen School of Public Health at Washington State University, found a group of coronaviruses similar to SARS-CoV-2 that were initially discovered living in bats in Russia in 2020. At the time, scientists did not think the virus, called Khosta-2, posed a threat to people. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] But when Letko’s team did a more careful analysis, they found that the virus could infect human cells in the lab, the first warning sign that it could become a possible public health threat. A related virus also found in the Russian bats, Khosta-1, could not enter human cells readily, but Khosta-2 could. Khosta-2 attaches to the same protein, ACE2, that SARS-CoV-2 uses to penetrate human cells. “Receptors on human cells are the way that viruses get into cells,” says Letko. “If a virus can’t get in the door, then it can’t get into the cell, and it’s difficult to establish any type of infection.” Khosta-2 doesn’t appear to have that problem, since it seems to infect human cells readily. Even more troubling, when Letko combi...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news