Scientists are calling for an urgent effort to develop a vaccine against a novel coronaviruses. If there is a deadly animal virus spilling over to humans, there is a chance of a new epidemic.
The new respiratory virus found among bats is similar to the one found in humans and can be transmitted through the same pathways.
It is problematic because of its apparent resistance to the vaccine.
The new respiratory virus can't be mitigated by our current drugs.
The bat virus and the omicron variant are both members of the same group of respiratory coronaviruses.
The urgent need to continue development of new and broader-protecting sarbecoviruses vaccines is highlighted by our findings.
Neither of the bat viruses looked particularly dangerous when researchers in Russia stumbled across them.
Both were unrelated to the disease. Some of the genes researchers thought were needed to antagonize the human immune system came from a different line of people.
Experts have identified some worrisome qualities in Khosta-2.
In the lab, the bat pathogen was able to use the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), which is found in human cells, to cause disease. The spike proteins has a binding domain that is resistant to the COVID-19 vaccine.
"Genetically, these weird Russian viruses looked like some of the others that had been discovered elsewhere around the world, but because they didn't look like the real thing, no one thought they were anything to get excited about," says Michael Letko from Washington State University.
When we looked at them more, we were surprised to see they could cause harm. It changes our understanding of where the viruses come from and where they come from in the world.
Lesser horseshoe bats are a species found in Europe and North Africa.
Initial findings in the lab show that it's possible that the bat virus can spread to humans.
There is a chance that the two coronaviruses may recombine into a new variant.
The virus was able to enter human cells using a different gate than it was able to enter on its own in the lab.
The authors suggest that some coronaviruses may be able to enter human cells through a currently unknownreceptor.
It has been shown that sarbecoviruses co-circulate in bats, so it may be an evolutionary strategy for viral persistence within the host population.
That isn't a good thing. The current coronaviruses vaccines that focus on the ACE2 receptor may not be able to ward off infections.
In the lab, the effectiveness of the vaccine on neutralizing the pseudoviruses was less when the binding domain was replaced with a different one.
Letko says that there are groups trying to come up with a vaccine that protects against sarbecoviruses and not just the next variant of the disease.
"Unfortunately, many of our current vaccines are designed to specific viruses that we know can cause harm to humans, and those that seem to pose the biggest risk to infections." That is a constantly changing list. The design of the vaccines needs to be expanded to protect against sarbecoviruses.
The quicker we do it, the better chance we have of avoiding another outbreak of coronaviruses.
There was a study published.
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