A new coronavirus, similar to the one that caused the global pandemic, has been discovered in the blood of five bats living in Thailand. The new type of virus has been named RacCS203 and could fight the pandemic SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19 disease.
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Researchers have discovered a new coronavirus in bats living in a cave in Thailand. It was found to be 91.55% identical to SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19 disease. The bats studied had antibodies capable of attacking SARS-CoV-2, but the virus cannot infect humans. Researchers believe that bat coronaviruses cannot infect humans directly and must go to an intermediate host, such as pangolins, before they evolve to infect human cells.
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, shares 91.5% of its genetic code with that of the newly identified virus, called RacCS203.
However, antibodies circulating in the blood of infected bats and pangolins have been shown to be effective in neutralizing the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This biological paradox indicates that coronavirus viruses, discovered in bats, cannot, by default, infect humans, experts speculate.
The authors believe instead that coronaviruses develop the ability to infect human cells after they are first transmitted to an intermediate host, such as a pangolin. Here, it undergoes mutations and changes its shape slightly, which gives it the ACE2 binding facility, the authors theorize, the Daily Mail quotes.
Almost identical, SARS-CoV-2 and RacCS203 – the new virus – have key differences
Although genetically similar (91.5% identical), SARS-CoV-2 and RacCS203 – the new virus – have key differences. For example, although the peak proteins of the two viruses are genetically similar, a key region on the peaks that binds to human receptors has a very different shape, making it impossible for the new virus to bind to human ACE2 cells. .
The discovery of the new virus adds to a growing body of knowledge about the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus family. Previously, similar viruses were found only in China and Japan, but the presence of this strain in Thailand indicates that there is much more than previously thought, probably spread over a radius of 3,000 miles in Southeast Asia.
These findings are in line with yesterday’s announcement by the World Health Organization that the pandemic occurred naturally and the coronavirus was not released from a laboratory.
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