Chilling research by virus boffins finds coronavirus that batters bats is just a small mutation away from infecting humans – experts in the US researched the HKU5-CoV-2
Boffins are warning the world about a new coronavirus that is just a mutation away from causing an outbreak in humans.
The catchily-named HKU5-CoV-2 is just a little bit away from being able to catch on in humans, according to research by a team at Washington State University in the US. The virologist Professor Michael Letko, who works at the university and was a co-lead on the study, said “HKU5 viruses may be only a small step away from being able to spill over into humans”.
The virus is related to the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). This is mostly found, as the name suggests, in the Middle East, while the HKU5 virus boffins have been researching and was collected from bats in China.
While rare and spread from contact from infected camels, there is no vaccine for MERS and around one third who catch it die.
Both MERS and HKU5 are part of a sub-set of coronavirus known as ‘merbecoviruses’.
“These viruses are so closely related to MERS, so we have to be concerned if they ever infect humans,” Professor Letko said.
“While there’s no evidence they’ve crossed into people yet, the potential is there and that makes them worth watching.”
This year boffins in Wuhan, the Chinese city where Covid-19 first erupted, said that one strain of HKU5 known as ‘Lineage 2’ could bind to ACE2 cells.
The research findings are sure to send a shiver down the spine of most Covid-19 pandemic veterans who remember miserable lockdowns, but the virus is only spreading in bats.
Tests showed, however, that a slight change in the virus’s spike protein could enable it to bind to ACE2 cells, which are found in humans and specifically in mouths, throats and noses.
The experiments saw researchers use gene-editing tools to make virus particles that have the HKU5 spike protein, the Mail reported. These lab-made monsters are actually harmless, do not replicate and were found to show little response when confronted with human cells.
That was unless the virus had certain mutations that meant it was easier to latch onto the human cells tested, which were ACE2 cells.
Where there is concern from boffins is if the virus jumps from bats to an animal that is closer to that of a human, meaning it could then mutate again and infect people.
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