Chinese team finds new bat coronavirus that could infect humans via same route as Covid-19

A Chinese team has found a new bat coronavirus that carries the risk of animal-to-human transmission because it uses the same human receptor as the virus that causes COVID-19.

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The study was led by Shi Zhengli – a leading virologist known as the “batwoman” due to her extensive research on bat coronaviruses – at the Guangzhou Laboratory along with researchers from the Guangzhou Academy of Sciences, Wuhan University and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

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There remains no clear declaration about the origin of the virus; it is speculated to have bat origins with the potential for intermediate animal host transmission to humans.

Shi, however, has ruled out the institute as the source of the outbreak.

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A newly identified lineage within the HKU5 coronaviruses was first described in association with the Japanese pipistrelle bat in Hong Kong.

Merbecovirus is the new virus subgenus that includes the one causing Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers).

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“We report the discovery and isolation of a distinct lineage (lineage 2) of HKU5-CoV, which can utilise not only bat ACE2 but also human ACE2 and various mammalian ACE2 orthologs [– genes found in different species with a common origin],” they wrote in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Cell.

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Researchers discovered that this virus, isolated from samples collected from bats, could infect the human body, as well as artificially grown aggregates of cells or tissues that mimic miniature versions of respiratory or intestinal organs.

“Bat merbecoviruses … pose a high risk of spillover to humans, either through direct transmission or facilitated by intermediate hosts,” the researchers added.