Cambridge bioinformatics found in the genetic sequence of COVID-19 an eight-amino acid insert that is identical to a part of the human protein.
“Comparison of human SARS-CoV-2 SARS strains infecting humans with pneumonia strains COVID-19 shows that SARS-CoV-2 acquired a unique sequence of small insertion at site S1 / S2,” Izvestia researchers cited.
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According to scientists, the virus uses this particular human enzyme to penetrate into the cell, but at the same time interferes with the work of the same human protein. It turns out, a kind of double blow to the body.
According to the specialist in coronaviruses, head of the Laboratory of Ecology of Microorganisms FEFU and the Laboratory of Virology Federal Research Center for Biodiversity, Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Mikhail Shchelkanov, the detected insert is natural for such pathogens.
“This is a normal process of evolution of the virus and its adjustment to the mammalian organism that is its owner,” he said.
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Shchelkanov is sure that a fragment of the genome was accidentally obtained by the virus as a result of mutations, but it was he who made it possible to spread so widely in human populations and cause a pandemic.
“Of course, this could be a random insertion mutation. The second option is that the intermediate host of the coronavirus has an insert identical to the human one, to which it adapted during the mutation process. The third – the virus has long existed in a population of people, or it was passaged on human cells. And the fourth – they artificially inserted it, ”the expert said.
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Earlier, Australian scientists talked about the “perfect adaptability” of coronavirus to humans. According to Nikolai Petrovsky, a scientist at the University of Flinders, the virus attaches itself best to human cells, not the bat, as previously thought. Now scientists are looking for the answer to the question of the “artificial” nature of its origin.
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