Newly discovered bat coronavirus can spread to humans like Covid-19: Experts

New Delhi, Feb 22 (IANS) The newly discovered bat coronavirus — HKU5-CoV-2 — can spread to humans like Covid-19, said experts on Saturday, raising fresh health concerns.

HKU5-CoV-2 was identified by a team of Chinese virologists led by Shi Zhengli, a renowned scientist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. She is also known as “Batwoman” for her extensive research on coronaviruses, particularly the SARS-CoV-2 virus — responsible for the deadly pandemic that claimed millions of lives.

The discovery raises concerns about the possibility of another zoonotic spillover. HKU5-CoV-2 belongs to the merbecovirus subgenus, which includes the MERS-CoV virus that caused the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak.

Zhengli’s team had, a few years ago, discovered the HKU lineage of coronaviruses in bats from Hong Kong, but it lacked the ability to infect human cells.

On the other hand, “HKU5-CoV-2 is able to bind to human ACE-2 receptors and infect lab cell models of human lungs and intestines. It is also capable of binding to ACE-2 receptors in other mammals, which means it could theoretically spread from animals to man and vice versa,” said Rajeev Jayadevan, Chairman of the Kerala State IMA Research Cell, told IANS.

The expert noted that Wuhan researchers have not provided a comparison between HKU5-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV-2 in their ability to infect human cells.

However, Gautam Menon, Dean, Research, at Ashoka University said that the HKU5-CoV-2 does not have pandemic potential. “From what we know as of now, this is unlikely to be significant. HKU5-CoV-2 has interesting similarities to Covid-19 and to some other coronaviruses known to infect humans, but that isn’t enough to infer that it will spread between humans in a way that could cause a pandemic,” Menon told IANS.

He further noted that wide exposure to SARS-CoV-2 virus may provide immunity against the new bat coronavirus. “The fact that most people on the planet have been exposed to Covid-19 by now should also protect against viruses, such as HKU5-CoV-2,” Menon said, while stressing the need to continue research in this area to prepare for any contingency.

Jayadevan that while research on viruses that naturally live in bats is important, studying these viruses in laboratories also carries inherent risks.

“If proper biosecurity measures are not followed, there is a potential for accidental spillover to humans. To mitigate these risks, many labs studying high-risk pathogens operate under stringent Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) protocols,” he said.

He emphasised the need to decrease interactions between bats and humans. “Viruses are known to recombine with each other, creating new versions with greater abilities. This study is a reminder that viruses living naturally in other animals remain a threat for future pandemics in man, and reducing bat-human interactions is one way to lower the risk of spillovers,” Jayadevan said.

–IANS

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